



Boul 



FHESENTI-U BY 



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FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 



THE USE OF COLOR 



IN THE 



Verse of the English Romantic 
Poets 



SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ARTS, LITERATURE, AND SCIENCE, 

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, IN CANDIDACY FOR 

THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH 



ALICE EDWARDS PRATT 



CHICAGO 

Zbe TUniversltB of Cbfcaao fJtess 



ITbe inmvcrsits of Cblcago 

FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 



y/ii 



THE USE OF COLOR 



IN THE 



Vei?se of the English Romantic 
Poets 



SUBW' rXED TO THE FACULTY OF ARTS, LITERATURE, AND SCIENCE, 

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, IN CANDIDACY FOR 

THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH 



BY 

ALICE EDWARDS PRATT 




CHICAGO 

G;be TUmversits ot Cbicago ipress 

1898 




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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction -------- v 

Bibliography -..--.. x 

Chapter I Langland, Gower, Chaucer, Spenser, Milton - - i 

Chapter II Pope ------ 14 

Chapter III Thomson - - - - - - 23 

Chapter IV Gray, Goldsmith, Cowper - - - - 33 

Chapter V Scott - - - - - - - 38 

Chapter VI Coleridge ------ 46 

Chapter VII Wordsworth - - - - - - 52 

Chapter VIII Byron - - - - . . - 61 

Chapter IX Shelley - - - - - - 69 

Chapter X Keats - - - - - - 78 

Conclusion : General Plan - - - - . - - 89 

i Color- Vocabulary ------ go 

ii Color-Scale - - . _ . . 95 

iii Color-Distribution - - . -97 

Individual and Comparative Vocabularies - - 103 

Tables and Charts - -. - - - - 114 



INTRODUCTION. 

The use of color in literature has, in the last half century, 
attracted the attention of many eminent scientists. Philologist, 
anthropologist, and physicist have alike found in this subject a 
fruitful field for investigation. As yet, however, study has been 
largely confined to ancient writings such as the Rig- Veda, the 
Zend Avesta, the Iliad, and the ^neid; and the character of 
these investigations may be inferred from the fact that the results 
have been published chiefly in philological and anthropological 
journals.' The possible aesthetic value of such study, and its sig- 
nificance in the interpretation of the author himself, have been 
but cursorily touched upon ; while the color-terms of modern 
English poets have never received serious treatment. 

A few brief articles or sections of articles on this latter divi- 
sion of the subject have, it is true, been published within the 
past twenty years; but Mr. Grant Allen's book on The Colour 
Sense is written from the anthropologist's point of view, and 
devotes only a few pages to the English poets. E. W. Hopkins, 
in an article on " Words for Colour in the Rig-Veda " [American 
Journal of Philology, 1883), has mentioned the color-range of 
the Paradise Lost as essentially the same as that of the Rig- Veda. 
The only deliberate attempt to examine and compare the color- 
terms of English and other poets, made from an Eesthetic and 
literary point of view, is that of Mr. Havelock Ellis in the Con- 
temporary Review, May, 1896, filling sixteen pages, and ranging 
rapidly over a broad and varied field, from the Vdlsunga Saga 
and Isaiah to Pater and Olive Schreiner. Mr. Ellis's article is 
extremely interesting, and, to the average reader, full of sug- 
gestive stimulus. At the time of its appearance, however, the 

^ The discussion of the point raised by Mr. Gladstone (loc. cit., p. 367), that 
color was little known to the ancients and that the sense of it has been gradu- 
ally developed, is well summed up by Mr. Lubbock {loc. cit.). 



VI COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

tables and charts upon which this thesis is based — the work of 
four years' reading and computation — were just completed; 
and a comparison of the results here printed, upon those points 
in which these investigations and Mr. Ellis's coincide, will show 
how unscientific are his iTiethods, and how unsupported many of 
his deductions. A fuller examination of some of the inaccura- 
cies into which he has been led by generalizing from insufficient 
data will be found in the chapter of this thesis devoted to Thom- 
son, since in the case of this poet Mr. Ellis has stated exactly 
what poems he used, and can therefore be followed in his deduc- 
tions ; meanwhile, it may be safely said that the field which this 
thesis aims to cover in part is, up to this time, an untouched one. 
It has not, however, remained untouched for lack of suggestive- 
ness in the subject. The sense-perceptions possessed by the 
great English poets, the relative keenness of sight, hearing, and 
smell in the poetic nature, the possible development of one of 
these faculties above the other in the course of generations — 
all these questions have for years been matters of lively interest 
to psychologists as well as to students of English literature. 

The present study of color as it appears in English poetry 
has for its chief field the verse of the Romantic Period, as found 
in the works of Scott, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, 
and Keats. 

To trace the use which Victorian poets have made of their 
rich heritage of color, to see what new possibilities they have dis- 
covered in old color-terms, or what additional terms they have 
adopted from prose or minted for themselves, would be a task 
both delightful and profitable. It does not, however, lie within 
the scope of the present paper. 

But, while color in poets later than the Romanticists is omitted 
from consideration here, its treatment by representative English 
poets of preceding centuries has been studied in order that a 
more intelligent view might be taken of the Romanticists them- 
selves. Knowing the color-vocabularies of a man's masters and 
the associations which certain hues have probably gained for him 
through his reading, we may the better understand at what point 
he takes his departure from customary usages, where he shows 



INTRODUCTION vii 

the greatest originality in his use of hues, and where, in the 
world of color, his chief interest lies. 

Langland, Gower, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspere, Milton, Pope, 
Thomson, Gray, Goldsmith, and Cowper furnish examples of all 
species of verse, except the ballad. In their work we have the 
purely didactic narrative, the dramatic narrative, the allegorical 
narrative ; there we have the drama, both classic and romantic, 
and the greater epic; there also satirical verse in the form of the 
humorous burlesque or of the lashing invective ; there pastorals 
in both the Theocritean and the Virgilian manners; there deli- 
cate Nature lyrics and straightforward Nature descriptions ; there 
odes and elegies, marriage hymns and impassioned love sonnets. 
A survey of the color-vocabulary of these poets ought, therefore, 
to yield us about all of the terms used to denote hue in English 
verse up to the time of Wordsworth. And a study of the man- 
ner in which each of these earlier poets used his colors, and of 
the fields to which he applied them, ought to give us an ample 
background for the study of the members of the Romantic School 
as colorists. 

The entire amount of English verse written by each of the 
seventeen poets named, including all dramas written in verse with 
the exception of Thomson's, has been studied in the best available 
texts,' and each usage of color has been catalogued. The results 
for each poet have been classified in two ways : first, according 
color-groups ; second, according to distribution among the 
various fields of interest. 

In the first classification I have made nine groups: Reds, 
Yellows, Browns, Greens, Blues, Purples, Whites, Grays, Blacks. 
The color-vocabularies of the several poets, classified according 
to these groups, with mention of the number of times each word 
appears, will be found chronologically arranged on pp. 103-10. 
Tables I, II, III present numerical summaries of the vocabula- 
ries thus classified ; and Tables IV and V show in order of pref- 
erence, as determined by usage, each poet's leading words, and 
his color-scale according to groups. 

^In the case of Shakspere, Schmidt's Shakspere Lexicon and Bartlett's Con- 
cordance were used instead of the text. 



Vlll COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

In the second classification, in order to show how color is dis- 
tributed in the worlds of men and of matter, I have arranged the 
poets' color-usages under twelve heads, each of which (excepting 
K, which is miscellaneous) represents a special field of interest. 
These heads are represented in my tables by letters as follows : 
A, man ; B, dress ; C, manufactured articles ; D, animals ; E, 
minerals; F, flowers and fruits; G, the sky; H, the land; I, the 
waters ; K, objects miscellaneous and indefinite ; X, color as 
color ; Z, abstractions. A fuller explanation of each class will 
be found on p. 113, following which are Tables VI, VII, VIII, 
IX, and Charts A and B, all summarizing, though in a variety of 
ways, the results of the classification of colors according to fields 
of interest. 

In the cataloguing and classifying of terms, many minor dif- 
ficulties have been encountered. Broadly speaking, these diffi- 
culties are of three classes, each of which may be represented by 
a question: i) Does this word signify color at all? 2) To 
which of the nine color-groups does it belong ? 3) Under what 
field of application does it fall ? 

The first question arises when the term has more than one 
meaning and we are in doubt as to which the poet intended. 
For instance, when vShelley says, " Look on yonder earth. The 
golden harvests spring" {Mab, III, 193), are we to define 
" golden " as yellow in color, or wealth-producing ? And when 
Keats calls Apollo 

God of the golden bow, 

And of the golden lyre, 
And of the golden hair, 
And of the golden fire 

{Hymn to Apollo, 1-4), 

shall we say that in the last two lines he uses "golden" as a syn- 
onym of bright yellow, but in the first two lines thinks of the 
metal only and not its shine ? 

The second question is provoked by hues which lie on the 
border line between color-groups. For example, is "creamy " 
to be classed with Whites or Yellows ; "tawny," with Yellows or 
Browns ; "dun," with Browns or Blacks ? 



INTRODUCriON IX 

The difficulties coming under the third class are by far the 
most troublesome. Take the following instance. Scott says 
that the war horse 

Champs till both bit and boss are white. 

— Lord of the Isles, I, xv, 12. 

Now when we have class C for the colors of manufactured 
articles, and D for animal hues, and I for all forms of water, 
including foam, where ought we to place this particular " white " ? 

Such questions must be met in every poet's color ; but the 
proportion of doubtful or troublesome words is, after all, so 
slight in comparison with the great body of definite and defi- 
nitely applied hue that I trust that any misjudgment on my part 
in including or placing them will not vitiate my results. In 
the case of Shakspere, however, I would beg especial indulgence, 
since I have not attempted to study his hues in their contexts, 
but present here only what can be culled from concordances. 

Outside the results drawn, in this one case, from concordances, 
I have examined and tabulated some four hundred thousand lines 
of verse. But even from a mass of data so large as this I shall 
not attempt to draw general conclusions of the sort which Mr. 
Havelock Ellis has put forward. I shall not speak of the renewal 
of interest in white, or of the lack of appreciation of blue, in 
any one period. Such things seem rather matters of individual 
preference than general tendencies, and, despite the apparent 
exactness of figures and percentages, allowance must always be 
made, in this sort of work, for the personal equation. It is this 
consideration which has urged the writing of separate chapters 
on the Romanticists, and on Pope and Thomson. 

The centralization of this study upon the Romantic poets will 
need no justification, especially after an inspection of Charts 
A and B has shown the union of the two great streams of color- 
interest which takes place in that school. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Allen, Grant : The Colour Sense. Triibner, 1879. 

Ballerstedt, E. : Uebe7' Ckaticers Naturschilderungen. Gottingen, 1891. 

Blumner, Hugo : Die Farbenzeichnungen bei den rdt?nschen Dichtern. Berlin, 

1892. 
Brandl, Alois : ^. T. Coleridge and the Eitglish Rotiiantic School. Translated 

by Lady Eastlake. Murray, 1887. 
Browne, William Hand : " Color Chords in Thomson's ' Seasons,' " Modern 

Language Noles,lAa.y,i^()T. ^ 

Colvin, Sidney : A^a^'j- (" English Men of Letters"). Macmillan, 1890. 
Dovvden, Edward : Life of Shelley. Kegan Paul, Triibner & Co., 1896. 
Ellis, Havelock : " The Color Sense in Literature," Contemporary Review, 

May, 1896. 
Garnett, Richard: The Poetical Works of Coleridge ("The Muses Library "). 

Lawrence & Bullen, 1897. 
Gladstone, W. E.: "The Colour-Sense," Nineteenth Century, October, 1877. 
Hopkins, E. W. : "Words for Color in the Kig-Y e^a.,''^ American Jourttal of 

Philology, IV, p. 167, 1883. 
Lubbock, Montagu: "The Development of the Colour-Sense," Fortnightly, 

Vol. XXXV, 1882. 
Masson, David : Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats. Macmillan, 1875. 
Price, Thomas R.: "The Color System of ^^ergil," American Journal of Phi- 
lology, IV, 1883. 
Reynolds, Myra : The Treatment of Nature i7i English Poetry between Pope and 

Wordsworth. University of Chicago Press, 1896. 
Ruskin, John: Modern Painters. New York, 1878. 

Note. — The poetical texts used are noted at the opening of the chapters 
on the separate authors. Books named above are those to which reference has 
been made in the text. 



CHAPTER I. 

I. langland's use of color. 

Text used : Piers the Plowman (B) and Richard the Redeless. Skeat edition. 

2 vols. Oxford, 1886. 
Number of lines, 8,032. 
For vocabulary see p. 103. 

II. gower's use of color. 

Text used : Confessio Amantis. Dr. R. Pauli's edition. 3 vols. Bell & Daldy, 

1857- 
Number of lines, 33,704. 
For vocabulary see p. 104. 

III. Chaucer's use of color. 

Text used : Complete Works. Skeat edition, i vol. Macmillan, 1895. 
Number of lines, 34,109. 
For vocabulary see p. 104. 

IV. Spenser's use of color. 

Text used : Complete Works. Globe edition. Macmillan, 1890. 
Number of lines, 45,553. 
For vocabulary see p. 104. 

V. Milton's use of color. 

Text used : Poetical Works. I vol. Lovell Co. 
Number of lines, 16,987. 
For vocabulary see p. 105. 

Note. — Shakspere is not separately treated in the text. For his vocabu- 
lary see p. 105. 



LANGLAND, GOWER, CHAUCER, SPENSER, MILTON. 

In the work of Chaucer, Gower, and Langland we have rep- 
resented, with some measure of completeness, the two extremes 
of English verse and of English social conditions in the four- 

I 



2 COLOR IN .ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

teenth century. While the entire poetic production of Chaucer 
and the Confessio Amantis of Gower represent the conscious 
cultured endeavor of men writing for pure aesthetic pleasure, 
Langland speaks with a single intensity of purpose : his aim is 
censure and reform. The subjects and the meters of the two for- 
mer poets are taken from foreign literary models ; but Lang- 
land's thoughts, sympathies, and verse-form are strictly English. 
From a knowledge of only the external facts about these 
three poets we might anticipate some of their characteristics as 
colorists. The descriptive and narrative character of the work 
of Chaucer and Gower promises a varied and perhaps liberal use 
of color in their verse, while their acquaintance with French 
literature opens to them the entire Romance vocabulary in addi- 
tion to their own. In the same way, the limitations of Lang- 
land's purpose, the homiletic tone he adopts, and the restriction 
of his reading, presuppose a scanty and subdued coloring, its 
terms chosen from those current among the people to whom he 
addresses himself. 

L 

Piers the Plowman (B text) and Richard the Redeless give 
together a total of 8,032 lines, in which there are 32 references 
to color. (See p. 103.) The leading features of this vocabulary 
become evident at a glance. It is extremely simple, and, with the 
exception of " enblaunched " and " pale," wholly Teutonic. Not 
only are its terms common and current, but they occur in most 
cases under such circumstances that the use of hue seems more 
formal than intentional on the poet's part, /. e., twenty-five of the 
thirty-two color-usages carry the alliteration, and four more are 
mere phrases. The colors most frequently used are red, green, 
and white. 

Langland's vocabulary is not only simple, but also defective 
in range. It contains no yellow, no golden, no brown, and no 
real blue, for "bio" as used by him means "livid " — O. N. bldr, 
not O. Fr. bleu. 

The poet's range of color-application is also narrow. Almost 
without exception he applies his coloring to man and to objects 



LANGLAND, GOWEK, CHAUCER, SPENSER, MILTON 3 

closely associated with man, especially to the latter field, in his 
brief descriptions of clothing, ornaments, or food. There is no 
nearer approach to the coloring of external Nature than is found 
in. the "grene" of Piers Plowman, XV, loo. Red is the term 
which he seems to use with most deliberate color-intent, as will 
appear from his one and only passage of vivid coloring, the 
description of Meed in Piers Plowman, 11, 7-18. 

Our anticipations with regard to Langland are thus fully 
borne out by examination of his verse. We find his color-terms 
few, popularly current, and often indeterminate. Such interest 
as he evinces in this field is all turned towards Man rather than 
Nature ; and either the strength of his moral purpose or the lim- 
itation of his subject has barred out any attempt at decorative 
effect. 

II. 

The Confessio Amanlis of John Gower stands, as regards sub- 
ject-matter, on a par with Chaucer's work, and draws largely 
upon Ovid for its narrative detail. Knowing as we do that 
Gower was versed enough in the French language to compose 
one presumably long poem in that tongue, we might fairly expect 
that his vocabulary and his numerical color-average would show 
a marked advance over Langland, and would nearly resemble 
those of his brother-poet Chaucer. But an examination of the 
33,704 short lines of the Confessio Amantis shows that Gower 
takes from the Romance languages only 4 of his 15 color-terms, 
as contrasted with Chaucer's 17 Romance words out of 42. 
Despite his extensive borrowings from Ovid, he transfers to his 
pages none of the Latin poet's color, and his vocabulary is 
almost as simply Teutonic as is that of Langland. Nor does his 
color-average per 1,000 lines show much advance on that of Piers 
Plowman. 

But if Gower rarely goes beyond the simple Teutonic color- 
vocabulary found in Langland's work, and if he lays on his color 
with a hand almost as sparing, he shows in the terms which he uses 
most frequently, and in the distribution of his hues, the influence 
of Romance writers — of Ovid, and of the authors of the Roman 



4 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

de la Rose. This influence causes an apparent emphasis on the 
green of the peaceful landscape in the Confessio Amantis, and 
brings green up numerically to the first place in Gower's list of 
preferred colors ; for Gower, following the choice of the French 
poets, takes the verdant month of May and the May landscape 
as the background of his narrative. When we include his neu- 
tral hues, however, we see that the greater part of Gower's color 
is applied to Man. He does not make this application as did 
Langland ; his allusions to attire are very few indeed ; but he 
expends his color upon the human body itself, and dwells with 
evident pleasure on the hair, eyes, and complexion of his charac- 
ters. Typical descriptions by Gower of womanly beauty may be 
found in the Confessio Amantis, II, p. 210, and III, p. 27. It may 
be noted that he, like Chaucer, observes the traces of emotion in 
the countenance, as marked by a changing hue. 

Gower thus occupies, as a colorist, a position intermediate 
between Langland and Chaucer. The former he resembles in his 
simple and limited vocabulary and in his small color-average, 
less than four words per 1,000 lines ; the latter he approaches at 
those points where both show the influence of Romance models; 
viz.: in the manner of describing human beings, especially beau- 
tiful women, and in the abundant use of the green of spring- 
time. Even his most vivid bits of coloring, however, have an 
air of polite artificiality, and impress us as mere Ronjance adorn- 
ments which he has borrowed along with his stories. 

III. 

The color-vocabulary of Chaucer may seem limited when 
compared with that of Elizabethan writers, yet its 42 terms 
are a striking advance upon Langland's 12 and Gower's 15. 
Chaucer omits only 4 of the hues used by his two contempo- 
raries, and adds 30, among which are conspicuous the names 
of dye-stuffs and of colored cloths — a fact quite in keeping 
with his interest in the dress of his men and women. Despite 
the large number of Romance color-terms which he employs — 
17 out of 42 — the emphasis of usage, as in Gower, remains upon 
the simple primitive words. There are 10 words in his vocabu- 



LANGLAND, GOWER, CHAUCER, SPENSER, MILTON 5 

lary for red, but the old "rede" appears in 79 out of the 100 
usages of the color ; there are also 10 words for white, but 
they are so distributed that "whyt" and "pale" occur 125 times, 
and the remaining 8 terms taken together only 29 times. " Yelw" 
and "gold" count together for 22 of the 34 uses of Yellows, and 
"blak" for 58 of the 61 Blacks. Green and brown have no syn- 
onyms ; and despite the frequent occurrence of "verdure," " ver- 
meille," and " blanche " in the Roman de la Rose, Chaucer renders 
these words by the simple terms "green," "red" or "ruddy," and 
" white," neither here nor elsewhere using "verdant " or " vermeil." 
His vocabulary shows a marked advance over Gower's in the use of 
color symbolically: " white " of purity and innocence; "black" 
of the sorrowful or mysterious ; " hoar" of age, decrepitude, and 
ruin; "blue" or "azure" of truth and steadfastness {Sq. T., 
635-7; Anel., 330-32; Tr. and Cr., Ill, 884); and "green" 
occasionally of fickleness {Anel., 180 ; Sg. T., 638-9). 

Two factors tend to qualify Chaucer's originality and inde- 
pendence in the use of color. A comparison of Fragment A of 
the Romaunt of the Rose with the original French, as printed by 
Skeat in Vol. I of his monumental edition of Chaucer, will show 
in how many cases color-terms and descriptive formulae in Chau- 
cer's work may be traced to a possible French source. Space 
forbids full discussion of the matter here ; but the question is an 
interesting one. The other possible limitation of his color- 
individuality is the frequency with which the commoner terms 
appear in rime. "White," "red," "green," and "black," his 
four most frequent color-words, furnish 132 out of his 165 color- 
rimes, i. e., rimes in which one of the two words is a color-term. 
The numerical preponderance of these four terms may therefore 
be due in part to their convenience as rime-words. How far 
this convenience influenced Chaucer in using a color rather than 
any other word we of course cannot say. Compare, in Fragment 
A of the. Romaunt, the use of "grene" in rime in 11. 128, 731, 
1581, where there is no word for green in the French. 

As regards Chaucer's application of color, a reference to Table 
Vn will show that more than one-half of it is expended by him 
in classes A, B, and C, that is, on Man, dress, and manufactured 



6 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

articles used by men. For as a colorist Chaucer is first and 
foremost a portrait painter, studying not only the static color- 
effects of the human face, but the dynamic changes effected in 
the countenance by emotion. See for example the passages Tr. 
and Cr.,11,645, 1 198; III, 82 ; V, 243-5 j Anel., 353; Duch.,4()']-(); 
and in general his use of " asshen," " pale," and " wan;" his most 
notable picture of this sort is of course Man of Laiv's lale, 645- 
51. In his studies of dress he is particularly exact and realistic, 
especially as compared with a romantic poet like Spenser. His 
application of color to animals is made with genuine pleasure on 
the poet's part, whether it be in a mere passing touch to a horse 
{Tr. and Cr., II, 624 ; J^n. T., 2034 ; I'ro/., 207), or in the elaborate 
descriptions of the fox and the cock in the Nonne Prestes Tale. 
From the birds of the Far lenient of Foules, however, color is 
notably absent; the goshawk is the only bird whose hue is men- 
tioned. 

When we turn from Man and the animal world to the field of 
Nature, we find that the larger aspects of the landscape receive 
very little study from Chaucer. The cultivated field, the garden, 
the well-kept meadow are his delight ; he assigns no color to 
mountains, and of his four color-adjectives applied to the sea, 
" black " and " wan " are used with unpleasant significance ( Tr. and 
0-.,II, I, and^«. T., 1598), and "blue " and "green " occur quite 
indefinitely of waves va.Kn. T., iioo, 2iXi.d Former Age, 21. Flow- 
ers he certainly loved, and his especial worship of the daisy needs 
no mention here. In meadow, plant, and tree he notices but one 
hue — green, and describes but one season — spring. The month 
of May, " moder of monthes glade," is his delight, and he chooses 
its dawning life and starting foliage as the background for much 
of his poetic narrative. Allusion to the spring season is charac- 
teristic also of Gower, and still more of mediaeval French poets, 
but Chaucer's description of Maytime reveals to us a real and not 
a conventional lover of the dawn of the year. 

Compared with Langland and Gower, then, Chaucer has 
advanced in the use of color in a marked degree. He trebles 
their vocabulary, he avoids their defects of range, he studies with 
attentive realism the countenance and dress of human beings, he 



LANG LAND, GOWER, CHAUCER, SPENSER, MILTON 7 

paints a few lifelike pictures of animals, and he begins, with the 
opening year, that loving description of Nature which is to cul- 
minate four centuries later in the English Romantic School. His 
strength of course lies in his portrait-painting; and an example 
of his sensitive color-eye and his poetic taste in this respect may 
be seen in his treatment of Boccaccio's original in Tr. and Cr., I, 
stanzas 25 and 26. {Cf. Ballerstedt, loc. cit., pp. 55-6.) Boccaccio, 
speaking of the fair widowed Cressida among the other Trojan 
dames, compares her to a rose among violets; Chaucer, seeing 
Cressida before his mental eye, says there was never seen "under 
cloude blak so bright a sterre." 

This single example may serve to show the definiteness and 
delicacy of Chaucer's color-pictures. Every quick, light touch of 
color which he lays on a portrait is made with insight and with 
skill; his mind's eye sees each change in the complexion of his 
heroes and heroines, just as he notes the slight smile or the 
dropped eyes. {Frol., 119; Friar's T., 148 ; Tr. and Cr., II, 505; 
CI. T., 612-13.) I^ the keenness of his vision in this respect he 
Is the lineal ancestor of Shakspere, who will far surpass him, how- 
ever, in his careless mastery of color, and in his free coinage of 
suggestive metaphysical terms unknown to the older, simpler 
poet. 

IV. 

Spenser's color-vocabulary stands, in respect to numerical 
fullness, exactly midway between that of Chaucer and that of 
Shakspere (Table I). As compared with Chaucer's, however, it 
shows a greater advance than mere numbers would indicate, inas- 
much as its terms are, with few exceptions — "castory," "watchet," 
"blunket,"' — those in use today : they are modern, and used with- 
out symbolic meaning, or at least with only such symbolism as 
we readily understand. The chief difference between Spenser's 
vocabulary and that of today lies in the compound rather than 
in the staple hues. Spenser and Shakspere made compounds by 

' Castory is used as a synonym of vermilion {F. Q., II, ix, 41). Watchet 
is a blue of varying shades (jp. Q., Ill, iv, 40 ; IV, xi, 17). Blunket, though 
usually a gray-blue, Spenser himself defines in his gloss as gray {Shep. Cal., 
May, 5). 



8 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

prefixing to the staple color-adjectives — e. g., red and white — 
the name of some object or dye or material whose color was 
steady and therefore helped to make more definite the. adjective 
itself. Good examples of such compounds are " rose-red," " snow- 
white," "fiery-red," "scarlet-red," "crimson-red," "lily-white," 
"milk-white," "grass-green." The Elizabethan poets almost 
never made tints and shades, as our later poets do, by means of 
the prefixes pale, light, dark, deep, etc. (pp. 111-12); Shakspere 
has no tints and but one shade — "deep-green" {Complaint, 213); 
Spenser has no shade and but two tints — "pallid-blue" [Prot/iaL, 
30) and "pallid-green" {Gnat, 222).'' 

I have said that Spenser's vocabulary of color is modern, 
readily understood. It is also definite, so far as it can be cata- 
'logued, with the single exception of the term "purple," most 
uncertain of all the hues used by English poets. One feels almost 
warranted in including Spenser's purple with his red, especially 
when it is used of blood, since the choice between the two seems 
one of rhythm and rime rather than of hue. (Compare, for 
example, F. Q., I, ii, 14, 9, with I, ii, 17, 9 ; II, viii, 36, with II, 
viii, 37 ; III, i, 65, with III, vii, 17.) 

In his color-scale (Table V) Spenser differs from other 
poets of his own and earlier time in lifting Yellows to a promi- 
nent place and subordinating Blacks. In this he was followed 
by Keats, with whom he agrees more closely than with any other 
of 'the poets represented here. This preference on Spenser's 
part for yellow and dislike of black we may see not only in Table 
V, but also in IV, where "golden" appears as Spenser's most fre- 
quent color-word, and in III, where his percentage of Yellows is 
the largest, and that of Blacks next to the smallest, recorded. 
What Mr. Havelock Ellis says of Keats is true also of Spenser : 
" No great poet is more licentious in the use of 'golden ' as a mere 
piece of poetic slang " {loc. cit., p. 722). 

Spenser's application of color shows that Man and problems 
connected with Man were of pre-eminent interest to him. In 

^ In these passages it is possible that pallid may mean dull or dark, thus 
forming a shade instead of a tint. Spenser probably had in mind such classical 
phrases as Virgil's " pallentis violas" and " pallente hederaP 



LANG LAND, GOWER, CHAUCER, SPENSER, MILTON 9 

spite of his argument in An HynDi in Honour of Beauty that "that 
same goodly hew of white and red, with which the cheekes are 
sprinckled," and "those sweete rosy leaves, so fairely spred upon 
the lips," and "that golden wyre," 

shall fade and fall away 
To that they were, even to corrupted clay, 

he applies 58 per cent, of his color to man and his clothing, 
(Table VII), going not a whit beyond Chaucer in his percent- 
age of Nature hues. Though he not infrequently notes, like 
Chaucer, that the human countenance is "ashy," "pale," "pallid," 
or "wan" because of emotion, his most distinctive touches are 
intended to indicate beauty. Take, for example, his Whites: 
here, in addition to the two ordinary terms "white " and "pale," 
and other terms of infrequent occurrence, he has "silver" 53 
times, "snowy" 34, "hoary" 28, "ivory" 14, "lily" 12. He 
has developed what we might term the poetic Whites, at the 
expense of the standard word; but that he was led to do this by 
a discriminating perception of differing tones in the white objects 
described is much to be doubted. Probably exigencies of meter, 
or desire for alliteration, or the instinct for beauty and variety, 
decided whether he should call a woman'sskin "white," " snowy," 
"ivory," "alabaster," "marble," "silver," "cream," or "lily." 
His catalogues of a lovely woman's charms remind one of Gower, 
though they have less artificiality. (See, for example, Amoretti, 
XV and LXIV.) 

Spenser's Nature painting is more varied than Chaucer's, but 
still scanty. He gives less color to all forms of Nature put 
together than to man's body, and for the greater aspects of the 
physical world — sky, plain, and sea — he has fewer pigments than 
for dress alone. For vegetation he has only the adjectives 
"green," " pallid-green," and "pallid;" for the ocean no real- 
istic hues ; for mountains none except " green " {F. Q., I, vii, 32). 
He does, however, show a special fondness for silver streams, and 
he notices flowers w^ith some minuteness and with apparent enjoy- 
ment — the "Pink and purple Columbine" {Shep. Cal., April, 136), 
" the violet, pallid blue " {Frothalamion, 30), " the purple hyacine " 



lo COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

[Gnat, 670), fleur-de-lis "with silken curtains and golden cover- 
lets" {F. Q., II, vi, 16), etc. 

His "best coloring in the larger Nature fields is given to the 
sky, but even here he is decorative rather than discriminating ; 
and he usually places any passages descriptive of the hues of 
clouds and heavens at the beginnings of cantos, where some new 
action takes its rise {F. Q., II, iii, i ; xi, 3). In this he seems to 
follow afar those mediaeval poets who determined by the position 
of the planets and the season of the year the time of each event, 
although in Spenser the astrology is omitted and only its accom- 
panying romantic adornment remains. The rainbow he thinks 
" goodly," but he is content to speak of its hues in the most gen- 
eral terms, as in F. Q., V, iii, 25. Contrast with this bit of classic 
conventionality Thomson's scientific list of spectrum hues [New- 
ton, 96-118), or the description of the bow written by William 
Browne, one of Spenser's own contemporaries — a description 
crowded with homely yet true observation [Britannia' s Pastorals, 

n, 3). 

Spenser constantly made natural scenery the background of 
his romantic imaginings, and he enjoyed color ; but he did not 
observe nice differences in Nature's hues. Indeed, before Milton 
no English poet of the first rank looked upon Nature as other 
than the stage of human action. Perhaps we could not expect 
the poetic-realistic landscape to appear in literature in an age 
when the landscape backgrounds on the painter's canvas were so 
eminently stiff in outline and crude in coloring as were those of 
Italy in Spenser's day. 

In frequency of color-usage Spenser is considerably in 
advance of Chaucer ; and yet, after studying all of the hues 
which his verse yields to the cataloguer, one remains unsatisfied. 
Why is it, we ask ourselves, that we carry from the reading of 
Spenser an impression of so much brightness and color when he 
averages (Table II) but 17 color-terms per 1,000 lines? 

Let us go again to his verse for an answer to this question. 
We shall find there something which eludes the cataloguer, 
but which, nevertheless, has its influence upon the reader — a 
constant color-hinting that, in conjunction with the reader's 



LANGLAND, GOWER, CHAUCER, SPENSER, MILTON 1 1 

imagination, contributes a brilliant gorgeousness or a dire 
gloom to his pages. (See F. Q., Ill, xi, 47 ; V, iii, 25 ; Gnat, 
97-120; Muiopotfuos, 330-5.) In addition to the more spe- 
cific terms, Spenser has hosts of nondescripts : " divers col- 
ourd," "sundry colourd," "painted," "discolourd" (= diverse), 
"perfect hue," "lovely hue," "goodly hue," "likely hue," 
"manly hue," "uncouth hue," "horrible hue," "loathsome 
hue," "hellish hue," "crabbed hue," "hated hue," "deadly 
hue," "filthy hue," "angels hue," "celestial hue," "heavenly 
hue," "orient hue," "heartless hollow hue." Nowhere, unless 
perhaps in Swinburne's verse, is the color-idea so ever-present 
and yet so evasive. And when we add to this poet's glowing 
Golds the constantly hinted glitter and sheen of much of his 
verse, we understand why Spenser seems to us a rich colorist, the 
forerunner of Keats. 

V. 

With Milton color-emphasis shifts from Man to Nature. To 
sky, landscape, and waters he applies 47 per cent, of his color, as 
contrasted with Spenser's 18 per cent, and Shakspere's 13 per 
cent. In his flower and fruit hues, also, he is relatively strong 
(Table VII). The proportion in which he uses the different 
color-groups, moreover, shows his study of Nature : he has less 
red and white — the human colors par excellence — but more 
green, blue, and gray than his predecessors (Table III). 

Milton's vocabulary is not large in the line of color (p. 105). 
It contains fewer terms than Chaucer used, fewer than Pope 
or Cowper used ; and none of its terms need special com- 
ment, if we understand that "blank" {P. L., X, 656) means 
white, and that " grain " ' means one of the hues made with 
cochineal dye. Nor is he lavish in using this vocabulary, for he 
rises but one word above Chaucer in his average per 1,000 lines 
(Table II). 

Yet it may be said of Milton that, though he used color spar- 

^For a full discussion of g7-ain as used by Milton see G. P. Marsh : Lec- 
tures ott the Efiglish Language, Lecture III (Scribner, 1859). 

Spenser used grain to mean, not the crimson or purple dye, but a fast dye 
of any hue, as in Shep. CaL, Feb., 132. 



12 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

ingly, he was everywhere master of it. He was never beguiled 
into adorning his verse with it from mere poetic habit. In 
almost ever}'- instance where hue occurs in his verse it is used 
with artistic effect, whether it be the dark and baleful shades that 
render more hideous hell and its foul denizens, or the bright 
illuminated colors that curtain the sun at dawn, or prank the 
meadows, or mantle with regal ornament angel and archangel. 

The colors in his verse are distinctly beautiful. They are 
kept pure. They are never degraded by association with 
unpleasant objects. In these respects he forms the strongest of 
contrasts with Pope (see pp. 17-21). To the student of Milton 
the mere mention of color-words, selected at random, will call up 
a train of exquisite imagery — for example, "amber" {JO Allegro 
61); " blue " (Zyc/^(2J-, 192); "carnation" (/'.Z., IX., 429) ; "dun' 
{P. L., 111,72);' "gold" {F.L.,Y, 277-87); "gray" {F.L.,IY. 
598; V, 186-8; Lycidas, 187); "green" (Comus, 232; P. L.,Y11, 
316; Lycidas, 140); "pale," "wan," or "jet" {Lycidas, 139-48) : 
" purple " {P. L., VII, 30) ; " red " {P. L., VIII, 619 ; Nativity, 230) : 
"rosy" iP. L., V, 1); "russet" {L' Allegro, 71); "sable" (// 
Penseroso, 35); "sapphire " {Music, 7); "silver " {Arcades, 14-16) 
"white" {Samson, 327; Comus, 213; P. L., XI, 206). These 
passages alone are sufficient to prove the delicacy and the 
dignity of Milton's coloring. With single, clear, artistic 
touches of color he adds beauty to pictures whose main effects 
are attained by other means. He nowhere masses his hues, but 
whenever he touches them he shows a masterly skill in their 
handling and a refined appreciation of their real and ideal 
beauty. 

In the works of the majority of poets light and shade are 
found to play a larger part than defined hues. This I have 
mentioned in connection with Spenser, and shall have occasion 
to emphasize in treating the color of Wordsworth and Keats. 
But of no one is it more true than of him who, out of his " ever- 
during dark," cried — 

Hail, holy Light ! offspring of Heaven firstborn ! 

Or of the Eternal coeternal beam 
'Contrast Pope's one use of "dun," Dunciad, II, 38. 



LANG LAND, GOWER, CHAUCER, SPENSER, MILTON 13 

May I express thee unblamed ? since God is light 
And never but in unapproached light 
Dwelt from eternity — dwelt then in thee, 
Bright effluence of bright essence increate. 

—P. L., Ill, 1-6. 

Did Milton's blindness increase his joy in "the sovereign 
vital lamp," as he in memory revisited its realms ? And did it 
affect his choice of colors or his manner of using them ? These 
questions it is interesting to attempt to answer, even though we 
reach no indisputable conclusions. If we compute separately 
the color-usages of the poems written before 1654 — the date of 
Milton's blindness — and those written after this date, we find 
that he was about four times more lavish of color in the earlier 
poems than in the later. In accounting for this we must con- 
sider, first, that poets in general use more color in youth than in 
maturity ; second, that there is an essential difference between 
the themes of Milton's two periods, the pastoral, descriptive 
character of Lycidas, Comus, B Allegro, and // Penseroso inviting 
a larger amount of color than one would expect in epics of 
lofty and didactic purpose, like the Paradise Lost, or in classical 
dramas like Samson Agonistes. Yet, in addition to these two 
influential factors in the lessening of Milton's definite color and 
the increase of glooms and glories, which we note in his great 
epics and the Samson, I think that we may detect a third influ- 
ence, which helps to make the color-scale of the Paradise Lost 
run from dusk to gold and radiant white, rather than through 
spectrum hues, and which also leads the poet to select his few 
bright hues for their richness and distinctness — "red," "purple," 
"azure," "amber," "gold;" — and this influence was the extinc- 
tion, for him, of 

Light, the prime work of God. 

— Samson, 70. 



I 



CHAPTER II. 

pope's use of color. 

Text used : Poetical Works. Globe edition. Macmillan, 1889. 
Number of lines, 10,287. 
For vocabulary see p. 106. 

We are accustomed to see in Pope the typical " Classicist," to 
regard him as the master, in English verse, of terse, polished 
dialectics, of bitter satire, of brilliant conventionalities. And 
therefore we turn to his verse expecting to find in it little or no 
color. The Essay on Man, or the Essay on Criticism, or the 
Dunciad would seem to create as little opportunity for color 
as did Piers the Plowman. 

Unexpectedly, however, the sum of Pope's color proves by no 
means insignificant. In his 10,287 lines of verse color-terms 
occur 297 times, averaging 29 words per 1,000 lines, a propor- 
tion greater than that of Coleridge or Wordsworth or Byron, 
double that of Chaucer or Milton, and two and one-half times 
that of Shakspere (Table 11). In his relative proportions of differ- 
ent hues Pope most nearly resembles Keats (Table III) ; and in 
range of application he is so symmetrical that his color is given 
about equally to Man and to Nature (Table VII). 

We cannot help challenging such results as these which the 
tables furnish. We cannot help asking if it be possible that 
these data, indicating a fuller color-perception than that of the 
great Romanticists, correctly represent the polished epigrammatist 
and caustic wit of the eighteenth century. 

A little study of Pope's color-passages will show that, although 
the average of his work as a whole indicates equal attention on 
his part to Man and to Nature, no single important poem betrays 
such symmetry. All of his Nature coloring worthy of mention 
— hues of flowers and foliage, of field and sky, of birds and 
fishes — is massed in four or five poems which have the slightest 



POPE'S USE OF COLOR 1 5 

possible allusion to human coloring, and these poems are his 
earliest. 

Pope's work is divisible into two distinct parts. In the first 
fall the poems of his boyhood, Windsor Foresf^ and the four Pas- 
torals, which were written, according to the poet's own testi- 
mony, before he was seventeen ; in the second falls the remain- 
der of his verse, composed mainly after he had joined himself to 
the wits of the 

Dear, damn'd, distracting town. 

I have said that his poetry is divisible. One may go further 
and say that a division must necessarily be made in order to 
obtain a just notion of Pope as a colorist. Stating the figures 
at once, in the S20 lines of his five early poems 65 per cent, of 
the color-vocabulary is bright; the color-average per 1,000 lines 
is 85 words, a total higher than that of any poet here catalogued ; 
and 90 per cent, of this color is applied to Nature. But the 
remainder of his poetic work, 9,467 lines, has an average of 24 
words of color per 1,000 lines, applies but 34 per cent, of these 
to Nature, and uses a vocabulary more than half of whose terms 
are Neutrals and Browns. It will be seen that, in his youth, when 
under the influence of Latin authors and of a suburban environ- 
ment. Pope started out to be a Nature poet, and set his palette 
with bright embellishing colors that would help to create the 
illusion deemed by him the proper atmosphere for the pastoral, 
colors that would present to his readers "the most agreeable 
objects of the country," that would furnish "beautiful digres- 
sions," that were, in short, like his shepherds, not so truly what 
he saw about him at Binfield or Windsor Forest as what he 
might conceive to have been there in the golden age."" Virgil, 
whose verse is full of glow and color, was Pope's chosen model 
among pastoral poets. 

The coloring in Pope's Pastorals may be summed up under 
the epithet " agreeable." It is not far removed from reality, but it 

^ The latter part of Windsor Forest was added shortly before publication 
in 17 13, but the descriptions of Nature were written in 1704, according to 
Pope's own note on the poem, as cited below. 

^ See Pope's Discourse on Pastoral Poetry. 



1 6 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

does not bear the indubitable stamp of first-hand observation ; it 
has upon it, rather, the glamour of the golden age. The blue 
violet "glows," "blushing berries paint the yellow grove," swans 
are "silver," honey is a "golden store," the bull and turtle-dove 
brought for sacrifice are "milk-white," dew is " rosy,"' flocks eat 
their "verdant food" on the banks of "silver Thame," and 
"lavish Nature paints the purple year." There are, too, some 
color-touches of real, if rather conventional, beauty : the "whiten- 
ing vale" of morning, the dawn "blushing on the mountain 
side," and the "groves that shine with silver frost." 

In the Windsor Forest we come still nearer to the actual hues 
of Nature. We feel that the poet had had his eye upon the 
object before he wrote — 

Here in full hght the russet plains extend : 
There wrapt in clouds the bluish hills ascend. 
Ev'n the wild heath displays her purple dyes, 

although immediately after this bit of realistic beauty he falls 
again into the use of a stereotyped phraseology, in which trees 

Like verdant isles the sable waste adorn, 
and 

.... blushing Flora paints th' enamelled ground. 

The lines of this poem in which he describes the hunted pheasant 
and " the scaly breed " sought by the angler are worthy of quota- 
tion as containing the most brilliant coloring to be found 
anywhere in Pope's work : 

See ! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs, 

And mounts exulting on triumphant wings : 

Short is his joy ; he feels the fiery wound, 

Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground. 

Ah ! what avail his glossy, varying dyes, 

His purple crest, and scarlet-circled eyes, 

The vivid green his shining plumes unfold, 

His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold ? 

~W. F., 111-18. 

' " Rosy " is evidently used here to convey a pleasing general impression, not 
a color. Tlieword " purple " in the " purple year " {Sp., 28) is likewise used of 
vivid color in general, not of a distinct hue. See Warburton's note on this line. 



POPE'S USE OF COLOR I 7 

Our plenteous streams a various race supply, 
The bright-eyed perch with fins of Tyrian dye, 
The silver eel, in shining volumes roU'd, 
The yellow carp, in scales bedropp'd with gold, 
Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains, 
And pikes, the tyrants of the wat'ry plains. 

~W. F., 1 4 1-6. 

One would like to know just how much Pope altered the 
Windsor Forest between its composition in 1704 and its publica- 
tion in 1 7 13. We know from his own note' that the historical 
and political allusions of the latter part (beginning probably with 
line 290) were written last. The opening lines, too, must have 
been rewritten, that they might show the name of Granville, to 
whom the poem was dedicated when published. And to one 
acquainted with Pope's habit of changing his former utterances, 
and concealing such change where possible, it would seem no 
strange thing if he altered the earlier part of the Windsor Forest 
without mentioning the fact. If one had the exact facts before 
him, it would be interesting to see if Pope's decision to be a 
painter, reached in 171 2, made him more sensitive to color at 
that time than he had been before. He did actually study for 
eighteen months under a pupil of the portrait-painter Kneller, 
at this period of his life, but we know little more of the result of 
that study than that he threw away, when he returned to litera- 
ture, " three Dr. Swifts, two Lady Bridgewaters, a Duchess of 
Montague, half a dozen earls, and one knight of the garter." 

It is, perhaps, as well that he did throw away his gallery of 
portraits, if eighteenth-century society was to be presented therein 
hues as disagreeable as those with which its members are depicted 
in his verse. For, turning to the second division of his work, 
that in which Man receives the greater proportion of his color- 
ing, we shall find that after his early pastoral poems Pope aban- 
doned almost entirely the use of color as an embellishment. He 
still handled hues, but not that he might present to his readers 

' " This poem was written at two different times : the first part of it, which 
relates to the country, in the year 1704, at the same time with the Pastorals; the 
latter part was not added till the year 1715, in which it was published." — P. 



1 8 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

agreeable images. They were now abusive epithets, the instru- 
ments of his satire. His color-vocabulary is increased by words 
like "sallow," "adust," "brown," "black-and-blue," "livid," 
"gray," "black," "dun," "dusky," and "swarthy," all of which 
were unpleasant to him, and of his earlier colors there is scarcely 
one that he does not degrade by associating it with the artificial 
or the loathsome. Take, as an example of this degrading of 
colors, the passages where " yellow " occurs. They are six in 
number, three in his early, three in his later poems. This color 
was certainly used to add beauty in the lines — 

Now blushing berries paint the yellow grove. 

— Atitumn, 75. 

O'er sandy wilds were yellow harvests spread. 

— W. F., 88. 

The yellow carp, in scales bedropped with gold. 

— W.F., 144. 

But how unpleasant are the images called up here ! — 

All seems infected that th' infected spy, 
As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye. 

— Es. Crit., 558-9. 

Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life ? 

— Es. Man, IV, 279. 

On once a flock-bed, but repaired with straw. 
With tape-ty'd curtains, never meant to draw, 
The George and Garter dangling from that bed 
Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red, 
Great Villiers lies ! . . . . 

— Mor. Es., Ill, 301-5. 

The last quotations are typical of all of Pope's later poetry, 
so far as it deals with color. Its subjects were such as to afford 
small opportunity for descriptions of external Nature, and of the 
beauties of human color Pope seems to have had slight apprecia- 
tion. Perhaps his own bodily weakness and deformity made him 
disregard, through jealousy, the splendid vigor or delicate beauty 
of others. 

Pope's portraits are those of the etcher, in the main. Only 
now and then does he give them a touch of color, and when he 



POPE'S USE OF COLOR 1 9 

does it is the merest touch. We find one mention of blue eyes 
{Moral Essays, II, 284), but it is mechanical. It has behind it 
neither the frank appreciation of beauty that prompted Scott's 
"eye of matchless blue," nor the emotion that moved Keats to 
write of eyes whose blue runs liquid through the soul. 

The shade of hair appealed so little to Pope that he could 
write four cantos of The Rape of the Lock before mentioning 
the hue of the reft curl, and then be content with a single stroke 
of color {Rape, IV, 169). Red hair is once referred to {Gulliver, 
IV, 27), and gray hair three times {Rape, V, 28; Moral Essays, 
III, 327 ; Ditnciad, III, 103). Otherwise the hue of hair is 
unnoticed. 

We next ask how Pope treats what Spenser calls 
that same goodly hew of white and red 
With which the cheekes are sprinckled. 

His favorite word for suggesting color in the face is " blush," 
but it is the blush of shame or of the rouge box, not that of 
modesty or beauty. The " nymph " who performs at the cos- 
metic table the " sacred rites of Pride" 

Repairs her smiles, awakens every grace, 
And calls forth all the wonders of her face ; 
Sees by degrees a purer blush arise, 
And keener lightenings kindle in her eyes. 

— Rape, I, 1-41-4. 

Ariel bids the sylphs who attend the fair nymphs to 

Assist their blushes and inspire their airs. 

—Rape, II, 98. 

If we question Pope's other Reds in the hope that they will 
prove less artificial, we are doomed to disappointment. The 
term "red" itself he applies three times to the face, in the fol- 
lowing passages : 

But Appius reddens at each word you speak. 

— Es. Crit., 585. 

She was my friend ; I taught her first to spread 
Upon her sallow cheeks enlivening red. 

— Basset- Table, i o i -2 . 



20 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

No ! let a charming chintz, and Brussels lace 
Wrap my cold limbs, and shade m}' lifeless face : 
One would not, sure, be frightful when one 's dead — 
And — Betty — give this Cheek a little Red. 

—Mor. Es., I, 248-51. 

Even ''rose" has the scent of the toilet table with its "Puffs, 
Powders, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux," in the lines — 

There Affectation with a sickly mien 
Shows in her cheeks the roses of eighteen. 

{Rape, IV, 31-2), 

although it is real, for once, when Eloisa says : 

See from my cheeks the transient roses fl)^ 

— Eloisa, 331. 

The few citations above, with a single mention of " ruby 
lips" {Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady, 31), bring before us 
every instance of Pope's use of warm or bright colors in depicting 
men and women, excepting his rather frequent " blush." How 
thoroughly artificial his treatment is here, and how far removed 
from any attempt to render mankind beautiful, is evident at a 
glance. As I have already remarked, color became, in the hands 
of the flattered wit of London literary circles, merely an instru- 
ment of satire. He no longer strove, as he had' striven in the 
Pastorals, to render his subject "extremely sweet and pleasing." 
His object was now to chronicle the disagreeable rather than the 
agreeable, and he therefore chooses hues which are not decora- 
tive but dirty and tawdry. He does make polite mention of 
Belinda's white breast and snowy neck, but elsewhere he remarks 
upon the color of skin only to condemn it as ugly. Henley 
stands in the Z>?^««ai^ " embrowned in native bronze." Lintot's 
face shows "brown dishonours." We read of the mud-nymphs 
" Nigrina black and Merdamante brown " as vying for the love of 
an archbishop " in jetty bowers below," and of this same 
prelate as surrounded by "a sable army," a " black troop," 

A low-born, cell-bred, selfish, servile band, 
Prompt or to guard or stab, to saint or damn. 



POPE'S USE OF COLOR 2 T 

Complexions are "adust," "sable," "swarthy," "pale," or over 
spread with "livid paleness." 

But why should we quote farther ? It would only lead to 
such revolting pictures as that of Obloquy with 

Mouth as black as bull-dogs at the stall 

{Imit. Spens., 38), 

or of the 

muse-rid mope, adust and thin, 
In a dun nightgown of his own loose skin. 

— Diinciad, II, 37-8. 

We may drop here the consideration of Pope's color-treat- 
ment of Man with the remark that, just as the coloring of 
Nature in his Pastorals can be summed up under the epithet 
"agfeeable," so the coloring given to Man in his later and chief 
period maybe summed up under the epithet "disagreeable." 

In conclusion, then, we find that Pope passed through two dis- 
tinct phases as a colorist. In his youth colors appealed to him as 
beautifying, if not distinctly beautiful, and he used them freely to 
adorn his verse. At this period he chose warm or vivid hues, and 
he applied them wholly to Nature. Though in the main he echoed 
color-uses of the Latin and English poets whom he admired,' in 
a few cases, such as his mention of "bluish hills" and of the 
heather's " purple dyes," he was probably recording independent 
observations. Had he lived in the country, apart from the influ- 
ences of the London literary life which in his day lent its heartiest 
appreciation to neatly expressed moral sentiments and stinging 
invective. Pope might perhaps have been a Nature poet. But his 
first publications won for him immediate notice, and by the 
time he was nineteen he was launched into London society and 
carried along in the tide of prevailing literary opinion. His 
ready wit was discovered and complimented, and he entirely 
abandoned his earlier tendencies to pastoral verse. 

In this complete change in Pope's ideals we have that which 
accounts for the apparently symmetrical color- interest shown in 

' See the notes to the Pastorals and Windsor Forest, in the Elwell and 
Courthope edition of Pope's works. 



2 2 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

Table VII — as toward Man and Nature — and it is this change 
which finally stamps him a Classicist of the Classicists rather than 
a forerunner of the Romanticists. Further, it is the formal, con- 
ventional application of his numerically abundant color that 
debars him from taking rank as a genuine student of Nature, and 
that accounts for the seeming paradoxes of Tables I, II, III, VII. 
Pope's 29 color-terms as against Wordsworth's 22, and his 47 
per cent, of color given to Nature as compared with Keats's 54 
per cent., are inconsistencies fully accounted for when we have 
studied his color-terms in their contexts. 



CHAPTER III. 

Thomson's use of color. 

Text used : Poetical Works. Aldine edition. 2 vols. Bell & Daldy, 1867. 
Number of lines, 13,158. 
For vocabulary see p. 106. 

When the eighteenth century entered upon its second quarter 
in England, Alexander Pope was indisputably the foremost living 
poet, critic, and translator. His poetic work both in manner and 
mitter became the model for the literary productions of his day. 
But just at this time appeared the first publication of a poet who, 
while admiring and honoring Pope, was to point the way along 
paths widely divergent from the straight highroad of the Clas- 
sicists. This publication was James Thomson's Winter, issued 
in 1726. 

It is not necessary here to enumerate and explain the many 
wavs in which Thomson foreshadowed the school of poets which 
ushered in the next century. It is of Thomson as a colorist that 
we have to speak, though even when we confine ourselves to this 
one aspect of his work, we shall find that he represents here, in 
little, the return to nature, the appreciation of the specific as well 
as the general, and the valuation of the commonplace and the 
hunble as well as of the ideal and the noble — all of which are 
characteristics of the coming Romantic age. 

Thomson's reputation is generally acknowledged to rest upon 
the Seasons and the Castle of Indolence. If to these we add the 
lines To the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton, we have named all of 
his work that is of interest to the student of color. In bulk, these 
poems constitute 7,028 of his 13,158 lines,' and in color-words 
they are more than twice as rich as the remainder of his verse. ^ 

' Dramas not included. 

-They average 52 color-words per 1,000 lines, as opposed to an average of 
21 in the rest of his work. 

23 



24 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

The data given in the following pages are, however, drawn from 
his work as a whole, with the exception of the dramas. 

Perhaps there is no quicker way to reach an appreciation of 
this poet's coloring than to compare his Winter with earlier 
poems on the same subject. By such a comparison Thomson 
is at once revealed as the observer of Nature, as the man who 
relies for his colors upon his memory of the real thing, rather 
than upon an established poetical vocabulary or upon an imag- 
ination trained along the lines of the classic pastoral. 

For examples of earlier poems on winter, take Spenser's 
January and December, in the Shepherd's Calendar, and Pope's 
fourth Pastoral. 

Colin Clout observes no coloring in the January landscape 
but the "pale and wan" face of the shepherd and the "hoary 
frost " on the naked trees, whose shady leaves are lost and whose 
sorrowful tears depend in dreary icicles from their boughs. In 
December, Colin's own head being now besprent with " hoary 
frost," he moans to Pan, 

hearken a while, from your green cabinet. 

These are all of Spenser's winter color-touches. There is no 
indication here of an enjoyment of the season, or of attention to 
any features of it but its cold and desolation. 

Pope's Winter has but one line of characteristic winter col- 
oring — 

Behold the groves that shine with silver frost, 

which might seem to express real appreciation of the season's 
beauties, were it not followed by 

Their beauty withered, and their verdure lost. 

The remaining color-touches of the poem are mere bits of gild- 
ing taken from the conventional pastoral palette : "silver swans," 
"silver flood," "golden store" of honey, and imagined "groves 
for ever green." 

But in Thomson's Winter the colors used, though open to the 
charge of being commonplace, are the outcome of real observa- 
tion, made with real interest. Take the passage where the poet 
is describing the decline of a day in early winter, when a tern- 



THOMSON'S USE OF COLOR 25 

pestuous storm is gathering. The "weak, wan" sun skirts the 
southern sky, while the "deep-tinged" clouds involve in "sable" 
shadows the furrowed land where crop the "dun discolour'd 
flocks." Then comes forth the tempest "wrapped in black 
glooms," and soon 

Th' unsightly plain 

Lies a brown deluge ; as the low bent clouds 

Pour flood on flood, yet unexhausted still 

Combine, and deepening into night, shut up 

The day's fair face 

******** 

When from the pallid sky the sun descends, 
With many a spot that o'er his glaring orb 
Uncertain wanders, stain'd ; red, fiery streaks 
Begin to flush around. The reeling clouds 
Stagger with dizzy poise, as doubting yet 
Which master to obey ; while rising slow. 
Blank, in the leaden-colour'd east, the moon 
Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns. 
Seen through the turbid, fluctuating air. 
The stars obtuse emit a shiver'd ray ; 
Or frequent seem to shoot athwart the gloom. 
And long behind them trail the whitening blaze. 

— Winter, 76-129. 

Then "the black night .... sits immense around," and 
the " weary clouds .... mingle into solid gloom." But with 
the morning "Through the hushed air the whitening shower 
descends," and the fields " Put on their winter robe of purest 
white." 

Here we have a series of pictures sketched in the main in 
Blacks and Whites. But the poet goes farther and sees, besides the 
predominant hues, others quite as true to the winter landscape. 
He sees the "brown inhabitants" of the wilds (257), the "blue 
serene of the frosty sky" (693), the "blue crust of ice" that 
glazes over the " marbled snow" (858), the "azure gloss" on icy 
mountains (783), the "drooping roses" of a wintry east (947), 
the " transient hues " of fair frostwork ; or the " blue film " that the 
icy gale breathes over the pool (724). 



2 6 COL OR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POE TR V 

Every tint here is evidence of the poet's quick eye and loving 
memory for Nature's winter moods, in treating which as subjects 
for verse he was breaking ground in a new poetic field. And 
inasmuch as the field of observation was new, it is not surprising 
that he developed here some methods of working peculiarly his 
own — methods which he continued to employ in his later pro- 
ductions. 

In his work as a whole, but especially in the Seasons, Thom- 
son displays some distinct mannerisms in his conception and 
treatment of 

All this innumerous-colour'd scene of things. 

— Spring, 568. 

These I mention below, with illustrative references : 

(a) A careful discrimination between tints differing from one 
another as slightly as these of the "blank" moon, its "wan circle," 
and the " leaden-colour'd east." This tendency to the study of 
relative values is very characteristic of Thomson, and finds expres- 
sion in various ways : in the description of the gradation of 
hues shown in a group of objects; in a fondness for studying 
the transition from shade to shade in a single object ; and in a 
preference for the comparative degree of the color-adjective to 
the neglect of the superlative, a preference which seems to accord 
with that general dislike, on Thomson's part, of putting limits 
to his ideas which Dr. Reynolds calls his "dislike of boundaries" 
{loc. cit., p. 82). 

{Spring, 1047-8 ; Summer, 594-8; 1 314-16 ; Autiwm, 950-54.) 
if) A conception of color as living and moving. This leads 
Thomson to the frequent use of color-verbs — whiten, green, 
blush, flush, etc. — and to the still more frequent use of what we 
may call inchoative color-terms — whitening, reddening, etc. 
Like effects are also secured by such adjective modifiers of color- 
nouns as live, ardent, flaming, glowing, kindling. In this concep- 
tion of color as in motion Thomson is a forerunner of Shelley. 

(Spring, 320-21, 378, 961-4; Summer, 82-4, 1112, 1584-6; 
Autumn, 619, 1257-60; Hymn, 95-7; Castle, II, xxxv ; Liberty, 
I, 160.) 



THOMSON'S USE OF COLOR 27 

[c] A fondness for colors due to moisture, manifesting itself 
in Thomson's interest in protoplastic movement as color-produc- 
ing, and in his frequent descriptions of the hues of sky and vege- 
tation during and after storms. (See references under (^).) 

{(i) Very frequent reference to abundant color without speci- 
fication of hues. Here Thomson is like Spenser. 

{Spring, 79-83> 184-97, 551, 561-8.) 

{i) A delight in color for its own sake, to be seen especially 
in the poetic analysis of spectrum and rainbow hues. 

[Newton, 96-118; Summer, 147-56; Spring, 526-35.) 

The last three passages are, each in its own way, catalogues 
of the primary colors. They are, however, almost the only 
selections that one could make from Thomson's verse where more 
than two bright colors are mentioned together. We have, indeed, 
several tones of one color brought together frequently, as I have 
before mentioned; but there is seldom an expressed color-com- 
bination involving three or more primary hues. 

Mr. William Hand Browne, in a brief article in Modern Lan- 
guage Notes for May, 1897, gives a list of "color-chords" that 
he has found in the Seasons. To the reader who does not seek 
out the passages on which Mr. Browne bases his statements the 
statements are decidedly misleading; for, instead of confining 
himself to the colors Thomson mentions (and the only colors 
we may legitimately assume he at the moment saw), Mr. Browne 
fills out the "chords" by naming the colors which the lines sug- 
gest to himself. Thus he gives as one of Thomson's chords 
" Green, white, and pink — fresh-sprung grass and hawthorn blos- 
soms," which he evidently derives (though he nowhere gives ref- 
erences) from the lines : 

From the moist meadow to the wither'd hill, 
Led by the breeze, the vivid verdure runs, 
And swells and deepens to the cherish'd eye. 
The hawthorn whitens, .... 

— Spring, 87-90. 

But, "pink" not being mentioned here, what right have we to 
assume that it was present in the poet's mind ? And, besides, 
Thomson nowhere uses the word "pink" for color. 



28 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

Again Mr. Browne finds, apparently in the lines below, the 
chord " White, yellow, and purple " : 

Where scattered wild the lily of the vale 

Its balmy essence breathes, where cowslips hang 

The dewy head, where purple violets lurk. 

But, when it is the fragrance of the lily of the vale, and the 
droop of the cowslips that the poet expressly mentions, what rea- 
son have we to ascribe to him a color-chord based on hues which 
he has left unmentioned ? In my opinion we have none. 

To return to Thomson himself, the passages referred to above 
will show that, even though Thomson was often a but half-hatched 
Romanticist in his turning of phrases, he was a full-fledged Nature 
student as far as eye and heart were concerned. And they will 
show that he loved colors, the colors of natural objects just as he 
saw them before him, and that he took a scientist's delight in 
this teeming earth 

arrayed 
In all the colours of the flushing year. 

— Spring-, 95. 

In fact, color was for him one of Nature's chief delights. When 
jiight shut down, the earth lost for him all of its beauty : 

Sunk in the quenching Gloom, 
Magnificent and vast, are heaven and earth. 
Order confounded lies ; all beauty void, 
Distinction lost, and gay variety 
One universal blot : such the fair Power 
Of light, to kindle and create the whole. 

— A jittmin , 1139-44. 
From his characterization of the various hues, one may guess 
which were most beautiful to him — not red, although that is the 
one which he oftenest associates with life and transition, but 
"gay green" [Spring, 82) and "delicious yellow" [Newton, 104) 
and " the pure blue that swells autumnal skies" {Newton, 106). 

Of brown he has an unusually large percentage (Table III), 
even the fronds of a withered fern taking on to his eye a "friendly 
hue," but the reader does not feel that this was one of his colors 
of preference. 



THOMSON'S USE OF COLOR 29 

His feeling for green is the one oftenest expressed — notably 
in Spring, 82-5, where he speaks of 

Various hues, but chiefly thee, gay green ! 
Thou smiling Nature's universal robe ! 
United light and shade ! where the sight dwells 
With growing strength and ever-new delight. 

In this expressed delight in green, Thomson forms a link between 
Chaucer and Keats. 

His chopen Blues are usually suggestive of repose, forming a 
marked contrast to his Reds. They are to him "gentle" {^Myra, 
3) and " pure " [JVewton, 106). 

A study of his Yellows will show that the majority of them 
are descriptive of the time of year dearest to him,' 

When Autumn's yellow lustre gilds the world. 

— Autumn, 1320. 

The mention of Thomson's favorite hues, and especially of yel- 
low as one, leads us to consider here the views of Mr. Havelock 
Ellis on this subject. In an article in the Contemporary Review 
for May, 1896, entitled "Color-Sense in Literature," Mr. Ellis 
has included in his generalizations certain remarks on Thom- 
son as a colorist, in which he incidentally points out what he 
calls the poet's " colors of predilection." In his notes on the 
Castle of Indolence he says : " black here prevails enormously 
over white, and yellow is totally absent. The prominence of 
brown is remarkable." These statements are correct enough for 
the Castle of Indolefice, a poem of 1,404 lines, constituting, 
if we omit from consideration the dramas, about one-ninth of the 
bulk of Thomson's work, but they do not warrant Mr. Ellis in 
constructing on this basis percentages which he places beside 
those drawn for example from " nearly the whole of [Coleridge's] 
poetic work " — 20,000 lines in all — and in deducing, from this 
and other comparisons, general remarks as to the color-tendencies 
in English literature. As a matter of fact, an examination of 
13,000 lines of Thomson's verse shows that he uses as many yel- 
low tones as does Spenser or Keats, and that he had a marked 

^Letter to Mr. Lyttleton, July, 1743. 



30 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

personal fondness for the word yellow, preferring it, for exam- 
ple, to the term gold. In his use of the simple color-word he 
passes any other English poet here catalogued ; and he even 
speaks of it in his poem to Newton as "delicious yellow." 

With regard to the " increasing prevalence of green " in 
Thomson, as noted by Mr. Ellis, there is again an alteration 
necessary in Mr. Ellis's generalizations, if we treat Thomson's 
work as a whole. Comparing Thomson with Shakspere and 
.with Chaucer (Marlowe, who is included by Mr. Ellis, is not here 
studied), we see that Mr. Ellis has put down for Shakspere 
{Sonnets and Venus and Adonis^ g per cent, of green, and for 
Chaucer ("portions of the Legend of Good Women and the 
Canterbury Tales'''^ 14 per cent, of green. We pass without 
comment the inexactitude of the Chaucerian references. Reck- 
oning Thomson's use of green in the Castle of Indolence at 
27 per cent., Mr. Ellis notes accordingly the increase there shown 
in the use of this word, over preceding poets. The percentages, 
however, drawn from the entire body of work of Chaucer, Shaks- 
pere, and Thomson show for the word green: Chaucer, 21 per 
cent.; Shakspere, 13 per cent. ; Thomson, 18 percent. There is, 
of course, an increase in Thomson's work as compared with that 
of Shakspere, though not so great an increase as Mr. Ellis's 27 
per cent, for Thomson would indicate ; but Thomson is rather 
behind the fourteenth-century poet (Jhaucer in the frequency of 
green. If we consider, however, the Greens as a group, and 
include verdant and other variants of the simple color, we have 
results as shown in Table III appended to this essay. The data 
immediately preceding have been made on Mr. Ellis's plan to 
admit of exact comparison. 

Take, next, Mr. Ellis's statement that " black here prevails enor- 
mously over white," with his percentages 36 and 9, deduced from 
2 uses of white and 8 of black in the Castle of Lidolence, a poem 
which, as before stated, constitutes one-ninth of Thomson's work. 
In the remaining eight-ninths of Thomson's work, however, we find 
just 40 uses of the word " white " and 40 uses of the word " black ; " 
it is, therefore, only in the one poem selected by Mr. Ellis for 
examination that Thomson happens to use more black than 



THOMSON'S USE OF COLOR 31 

white. This is unfortunate for Mr. Ellis's generalization, which 
apparently is that, though Thomson was liberal of black, and 
Blake "had a distinct predilection for it," Coleridge brought in 
" a return to white and corresponding repugnance to black, 
which has ever since characterized English literature." (In this 
connection we may remark that black is decidedly Byron's color 
of predilection and is in Coleridge himself only second to green, 
and therefore more frequent than white.) It is true that both 
Thomson and Coleridge associate black as a color with unpleas- 
ant images — Thomson uses it almost entirely for gloomy per- 
sonifications, and for storm hues — and it is also true that Coler- 
idge has more uses of the word white than Thomson, Gray, or 
Cowper, though much less than Scott ; but the numerical facts, 
drawn out on the same plan as that followed in Mr. Ellis's tables, 
are as below stated. Numbering the uses of the words black and 
white, in the poets above named, we find them as follows : Thom- 
son, 48 and 42; Gray, 3 and 3; Cowper, 12 and 10; Scott, 56 
and 87; Coleridge, 57 and 55; Wordsworth, 63 and 122. Scott 
or Wordsworth, rather than Coleridge, would therefore be the 
bringer-back of white into English literature, if we choose to 
consider such a thing as possible; as a matter of fact, however, 
taking the Whites as a group, and stating the percentage of 
usage, we find that this color-group has remained more constant 
throughout English literature than has any other (Table III), 
forming from one-fourth to one-third of the color-effect of almost 
every great poet from Langland to Keats. 

Finally, with regard to Thomson's colors of predilection, Mr. 
Ellis defines this phrase "of predilection" to mean "used with 
special frequency as compared with other writers " {loc. cit., p. 7 1 7), 
and he then states Thomson's as brown, black, and green. As a 
matter of fact, the evidence of Thomson's entire work, adapted 
to Mr. Ellis's standpoint, shows that they are black, blue, and red. 
" Predominant" colors — still following Mr. Ellis's method — are 
in Thomson, as a whole, red and black. Mr. Ellis gives black 
and green. Classing the colors into groups, on the lines here laid 
down, and including with each main color-word all of its syn- 
onyms, we find that in Thomson's verse the groups which lead 



32 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

numerically are Whites, Reds, and Greens — the same trio which 
Chaucer and Wordsworth place first in their verse. 

That Thomson is a forerunner of the Romanticists is evident 
to one who studies his color; but it is well to note in this con- 
nection that his percentages of color-distribution show that he is 
such a forerunner on the Nature side only. The Romanticists 
are characterized by a fullness of color-interest ^ — an interest which 
embraces both Man and Nature. The interest in Man had already 
been shown to a marked degree in the color-vocabulary and color- 
distribution of the Elizabethans. The interest in Nature had, 
however, no marked exponent before Thomson ; but in him it so 
outstripped the human interest that as a colorist he stands, among 
the poets here studied, as the extreme Nature type. 



CHAPTER IV. 



GRAY S USE OF COLOR. 



Text used : HWks, Vol. I. Gosse's edition. 4 vols. Worthington, 1854. 
Number of lines, 1,384. 
For vocabulary see p. 107. 

II. goldsmith's use of color. 

Text used : Pnems, Plays, and Essays, i vol. Crowell. 
Number of lines, 2,519. 
For vocabulary see p. 107. 

III.-— cowper's use of color. 

T&yXvLi,&&: Poetical Works. Benham edition, i vol. Macmillan, 1893. 
Number of lines, 20,145. 
For vocabulary see p. 107. 

I. 

Of Gray and Goldsmith as colorists there is little to say, 
since the total poetic output of each is so slight. Though the 
color-statistics of each may look interesting when reduced to 
percentages, the actual figures are meager ; and we realize how 
misleading percentages may be when we see that Goldsmith's 26 
per cent, of red, for example, is based upon only six uses of the 
hue, or that Gray's average of 64 color-words per 1,000 lines is 
computed from but 89 mentions of color in all of his verse. 

Gray's verse, when we include the three poems which Gosse, 
in his edition of Gray's works, catalogues as "doubtful," and the 
translations from the Welsh and the Norse, amounts to but 1,921 
lines ; and when we omit the doubtful and translated poems, as 
I have here done, it becomes 1,384 lines, or about one-tenth of 
the verse which we may catalogue for Keats, the least prolific of 
the Romanticists. A comparison with the latter poet is naturally 
suggested by Gray's color-average of 64, falling but one 
word short of Keats's own ; yet, apart from this relative wealth 
of usage, there is nothing whatever noteworthy in Gray's use of 
33 



34 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

color. Very little of his color is direct and real : the one poem 
in which we have more than isolated touches of concrete color is 
that on the Favorite Cat, where the hues are not exactly real, but 
are poetically heightened in much the same manner as are -those 
of Chaucer's chanticleer [Nonne Preestes Talc, 39-44). If Gray 
uses his brush in a freer, more dainty, more decorative way than 
the typical Classicist of his century, his touch reminds us more of 
Spenser than it does of the Romanticists. He deals with abstrac- 
tions and mythological imaginings oftener than with reality. 
Thus in Class A few of the hues go to man's actual body ; they 
are found, on the contrary, in such expressions as " rosy-bosomed 
Hours " (Spring, i), "blue-eyed Pleasures " [Poesy, I, iii, 6), and 
" Envy wan " {Eton, 68). His Nature hues incline, in like 
manner, to the mythological. We have, it is true, one mention 
of "clear blue sky" {Spring, 9), and several lines where green is 
used of a real Nature {Eton, 23 ; Poesy, IH, i, 2 ; Vicissitude, 8; 
Sonnet .... West, 4) ; but if we examine these in their context 
we shall find them in juxtaposition with "the purple year" {Spring, 
4), "the hoary Thames along his silver-winding way" {Eton, 
9-10), "The bloom of young Desire and Purple light of Love" 
{Poesy, I, iii, 17), the morning's "vermeil cheek" {Vicissitude, 3), 
and "red'ning Phoebus lifts his golden fire " (6'^/'?/;<?/ . . . . West, 
2 ) . Gray's coloring, as a whole, is that of the Classicist, with some 
added daintiness. It does not anticipate the peculiar features of 
Romantic coloring in any respect save that of its high average of 
usage. 

II. 

Goldsmith is of all the poets here treated the most meager 
colorist. Twenty-three of his thirty-two poems are without a 
hint of color ; and in the remaining nine, color-terms occur but 
26 times. Blue he uses not at all, yellow and purple but once, 
and Reds but six times, although they form his most numerous 
group. Only six of his color-lines refer to Nature. He uses 
color most frequently in Class B, dress — a fact which is amus- 
ingly paralleled by his instinct to deck himself in the tailor's 
brightest materials whenever a full purse allowed him such 



GRAY, GOLDSMITH, AND COWPER'S USE OF COLOR 35 

indulgence. His color-touches seem altogether unstudied : one 
could imagine them to be made almost unconsciously. They 
are commonplace, stereotyped, realistic. 

III. 

Cowper's color is far more interesting and individual than 
that of Gray or Goldsmith. To be sure, he uses it sparingly, but 
his low average is due partly to the fact that his verse includes 
such poems as the Olney Hymns, in whose i,6oo lines there is no 
color at all. 

The hues used by Cowper are almost always specific, applied 
to steady and definite objects, and so described that they might 
easily be represented by the painter. He seldom uses a color- 
verb, or represents changing, fleeting hues. The correctness of 
his observation of hues, as well as his remarkable memory for 
them, must strike every reader of the Task ; yet he seldom quali- 
fies colors — as Thomson, for instance, does — to afford us hints 
of his taste. Perhaps "sober grey" {Tirocinhan, 144) and "sight- 
refreshing green" {Task, IV, 759) are the only expressions we 
could count here. He does seem, however, to evince a fondness 
for Reds, if we may judge by his frequent use of them. His 
color-scale is the only one here noted that places Reds first and 
subordinates Whites to the third rank (Tables V and VII). 

In his distribution of color Covvper gives about one- 
fourth to the human body, and devotes some attention to the 
manufactured articles found in the interior of the home : in 
treating these fields he is direct and true, but does not mass his 
colors, or use them in variety, or go beyond the commonplace. 
In Nature it is not the distant, or the grand, that wins his notice, 
but the near, the small, the quiet object. He has left us no 
color-record of mountain or forest, and next to none of waters. 
His gently serious spirit found its joy in the things of which a 
country home was the center — cultivated fields, woods but half 
wild, and gardens of quiet retirement. His most notable color- 
passages describe fruits, flowers, and trees. Upon these alone 
does he lavish color deliberately and with delight. In sixty-three 
lines of such description — The Task, I, 300-20; III, 570-80 ; 



36 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

VI, 150-80— can be found one-tenth of all the color Cowper 
uses. In these lines, too, appear his most careful discriminations 
of shade. The last passage is especially remarkable, since its 
richly-colored garden was not under the poet's eye, but was 
recreated from his memory while he listened to the "wintry 
music " of the wind among the barren shoots of January, and 
thought with hopeful faith how 

all this uniform uncoloured scene 
Shall be dismantled of its fleecy load 
And flush into variety again. 

The passage in Book I is the only tree-list among the numer- 
ous ones found in poetry that dwells upon color, giving to the 
trees "each its hue peculiar." We see the gray smoothness of 
the ash and lime and beech, the " wannish grey" of the willow, 
the poplar's silver-lined leaf, the deepening shades of green 
which ash and elm and oak present, and 

The sycamore, capricious in attire, 

Now green, now tawny, and ere autumn yet 

Have changed the woods, in scarlet honours bright. 

As I have said, the taste of Cowper did not lead him to 
describe the wild and grand, but the cultivated and the near. 
The trees noted above are not of the forest, but of the woodland 
next the sunburnt hayfield. So Cowper's flowers are all of the 
garden or the hedge-row. And the creatures of the animal 
world that claim any share of his color are either domesticated 
or directly associated with man : the peacock, " self-applauding 
bird " {Truth, 58) ; the pet bullfinch and his murderer, the 
"badger-coloured" rat {Mrs. Throckmorton's Bullfinch); the 
"downy gold" of the pheasant and the "river-blanched" snow 
of the swan, which helped to form Mrs. Montagues' Feather - 
Hangings ; the goldfinches that hung caged in the greenhouse ; 
and even the snake, whose "azure neck" the infant's playful 
hand shall stroke unharmed in the golden future of peace {7 ask, 
VI, 781). Cowper was ready to acknowledge that there is 

A soul in all things, and that soul is God. 
The beauties of the wilderness are His, 



GRAY, GOLDSMITH, AND COWPER'S USE OF COLOR 37 

That make so gay the solitary place 
Where no eye sees them, 

but he could not refrain from showing the leanings of his own 
gentle spirit in the lines that follow the above — 

And the fairer forms, 
That cultivation glories in, are His. 

— Task, VI, 185-90. 



CHAPTER V. 

scott's use of color. 

Text used : Poetical Works, i vol. Fields, Osgood & Co., 1870. 
Number of lines, 30,947. 
For vocabulary see p. 108. 

Scott is here treated before Coleridge and Wordsworth, not 
because his early poems antedate theirs, but because the taste for 
them on the part of the reading public was manifested decidedly- 
earlier than the taste for the work of the Lake School. Just as 
Scott's novels and rimed romances appeal today to young 
people and to the youthful instincts of their elders, so they 
represent for us the youth of Romanticism — a youth in many 
respects obedient to its classical parents, but indulging in dreams 
and emotions that their authority could not curb. 

As my tables show, Scott had a large color-vocabulary and 
used it lavishly. He also distributed his color impartially, giving 
about 50 per cent, each to Man and to Nature. In the wealth of 
his color he equals Shelley; in his color-vocabulary he falls little 
short of Shakspere. Therefore, when viewed simply from the 
numerical standpoint, his coloring possesses for us an unusual 
interest. Undoubtedly, too, he had a good eye and an honest 
affection for hue, whether he saw it in Man or in external Nature. 
He rejoiced in the Purples and Greens and Browns of Scotland's 
hills covered with heather and bracken, no less than in the 
snowy brow, crimson cheek, bonny black eye, and dark brown 
ringlets of Scotch maidens. 

His vocabulary, which has its chief distinction in its Browns, 
is for the most part very simple, though it becomes large numer- 
ically by reason of his variants on the staple shades. Compare 
his Greens with Shelley's (pp. 108 and no). Counting com- 
pounds, he has 12 Greens where Shelley has but 8. But Scott 
has in his list only three root-words, "emerald," "verdant," and 



SCOTT'S USE OF COLOR 39 

"green," with nine variants of green; while Shelley, with fewer 
variants, has all of the root-words of Scott, and in addition 
"chrysolite" and "glaucous." Scott's color, like his style in general, 
is clear, direct, and pictorial. He always prefers the term that 
will be perfectly clear to the average reader. 

The significance of Scott's 48 words of color per 1,000 lines, 
here surpassed only by Keats's 65 (Table II), is somewhat 
lessened when we note how frequently his color is used for mere 
purposes of identification : in the true minstrel manner he often 
characterizes his person and landscape by the selection of some 
easily recognized, distinct quality — more often one of hue than 
of form — and holds to that as to a formula. Thus he introduces 
to us " Gray Morag," "Red Comyn," "Black Murthok," " Brown 
Maudlin," " Helias the White," etc., etc. And he carries his itera- 
tive formulse into the realm of Nature, telling us at least 22 times 
that moonlight is "pale," 20 times that turrets and cloisters are 
"gray," and 15 times that the beacon-fire (not to speak of 
objects illuminated by it) is " red " or " ruddy." 

The artistic value of Scott's abundant coloring also suffers from 
the fact that his color-words so frequently appear as rime words : 
"green" 78 times, "gray" 65, "red" 44, "blue" 37, "pale" 30, 
"white" 21, "brown" ig. These frequent occurrences in rime, 
constituting more than one-third of the total occurrences of the 
words named, leave it a matter of doubt whether Scott's main 
object in using them was not the securing of rimes. In Thom- 
son's Seasons, where blank verse precludes the temptation to 
choose a word because its rime is needed, we have a much better 
index of the author's color-taste than in Scott's rimed tetrameters, 
for the shorter the rimed lines the more frequent the temptation. 
Yet, were we to make deductions from his percentages by 
allowing for his mechanically recurring color-formulse, and for 
his color-rimes, Scott's verse would still remain rich in hues : it 
would still prove him true to his Scotch blood ^ — a lineal descend- 
ant of such color-lovers as Gawain Douglas and James Thomson. 

Scott liked brilliant or deep hues, broad contrasts, and 
strong lights and shadows. By means of these he constructed 
scenes in the main realistic, as they would appear to any observer 



4° COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

under everyday sunlight ; though he had also a fondness for 
securing unusual, and therefore telling, effects, by exhibiting 
objects under artificial light, in colors not their own, and he 
sometimes liked to assert the romancer's privilege of using the 
"pencil wild" of Fantasy : 

For Fantasy embroiders Nature's veil. 

The tints of ruddy eve, or dawning pale, 

Of the swart thunder-cloud, or silver haze, 

Are but the ground-work of the rich detail 

Which Fantasy with pencil wild portrays, 

Blending what seems and is, in the rapt muser's gaze. 

— Harold, \, I. 

Scott has here given us one key to his own poetry. It is a 
product of fancy, but of fancy blending what seems with what 
is, building her castles, not in the vacant heaven as does Shelley, 
but on the same substantial earth that his readers daily tread. 
And in the construction of realistic scenes lit by the light of 
fancy Scott has no more constant servant than color. 

Ruskin {loc. cit., Ill, pt. iv, chap, xvi, § 42) has called attention 
to the fact that if Scott does not intend to say much about things, 
the one character which he will give is color. Thus he paints 
the sea-storm in the single line, "The blackening wave is edged 
with white" {Lay, VI, xxiii). Or he describes tents pitched 
among the oak trees without mention of the form of either tent 
or tree [Marmion, IV,xxv, 17). In the true manner of a modern 
impressionist he gives the picture in broad strokes of the two 
hues, white and green. One might multiply instances of clear, 
positive, everyday hues laid on in the undefined washes and sharp 
high-lights of the impressionistic scene-painter. [The Lady of the 
Lake, I, xi, 1-6; I, xiv, 8-14; V, iii, 3; Isles, V, xiii, etc., etc.). 
In the last passage referred to this is especially striking. The 
passage also furnishes an instance of Scott's penchant for fire- 
light scenes. A Schalken might revel in portraying the trial of 
Constance de Beverley by the pale cresset's ray [Marmion, II, xix, 
— ), or the solitary figure of the abbot in The Lord of the Isles 
(II, xxiii). Such bits in Scott frequently suggest the calcium 
light and Bengal fire of the stage. 



SCOTT'S USE OF COLOR 4 1 

Scott, as before said, gives about one-half of his color to 
Nature. His work, standing as it does contemporary with that 
of Wordsworth and Shelley, naturally challenges comparison with 
theirs. Where, we ask, lies the difference between Scott's treat- 
ment of Nature and Wordsworth's ? Or in what respect do his 
descriptions of lake and mountain and sky differ from Shelley's? 
To answer these questions fully, one would need to be natural- 
ist, artist, and psychologist as well. But there are certain general 
differences between Scott's landscape and that of either of the 
poets just mentioned which reveal themselves to any reflecting 
reader. Wordsworth goes with reverence to Nature, loves her for 
her own sake, and in his poetry strives to reveal the power of her 
beauty and the beauty of her power. He is essentially a religious 
lyrist, and as such is concerned chiefly with the expression of his 
own mind, or with the interpretation of the mind of Nature, two 
things which with him are nearly synonymous. Shelley is in 
contact with the real universe only in so far as is necessary in 
order that he may construct for himself an impalpable, ideal 
universe, one in the picturing of which he may express his 
imaginative and emotional self. But Scott is neither a religious 
lyrist like Wordsworth, with his chief aim the faithful expression 
of himself and his relations to God's world ; nor is he, like 
Shelley, the enraptured singer of an imaginary universe. He 
presents a real world, to real fellow-men as auditors and observ- 
ers, and it is their minds rather than his own that constantly fill 
his thoughts and determine the character of his work. 

Narratives like Marmion and The Lady of the Lake are essen- 
tially of the nature of the spectacular romantic drama, arranged 
to meet the comprehension and the approbation of the average 
mind. Here, as on the stage of the theater, we find formal exits 
and entrances, carefully chosen stage-setting and scenic detail, 
all the telling effects of moonlight, torchlight, and midnight 
beacon blaze; here also shifting companies of men and women 
— fair maidens, mailed warriors, gray palmers, courtly knights, 
hoary minstrels, and red villains ; and connecting all a chain of 
sound, pleasant, musical verse, on the commonplace and health- 
ful themes of fidelity and patriotism, of love and duty. 



42 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

Scott's landscape is selected to give either suggestive and 
romantic, or historic setting to the action of his people. Take, 
for example, the opening canto of Marmion. The introduction 
will serve as a drop-curtain, the scene upon which we may study 
while we wait for the play to begin. On it is painted a Novem- 
ber landscape — chill sky, a few sere red leaves on half-naked 
trees, a cascade foaming brown over rocks and through the glade, 
and sallow, russet-hued hills rising beyond. In the pale sun- 
shine a flock of sheep crop the faded herbage, while their shep- 
herd shiveringly wraps his mantle's fold closer, his dogs creep- 
ing close at his heels and casting cowering glances at the 

clouds. We 

Feel the sad influence of the hour, 

and fall to musing on dear departed joys. But we are not left 
to ourselves : the feelings appropriate to the scene the poet 
understands, and these he expresses for us through three hun- 
dred lines, until, expositor-wise, he announces 

A knightly tale of Albion's elder day, 

and the curtain rises. Before the action begins we have time to 
note the stage-setting for Act I (i, ii) — the Cheviot mountains, 
the river Tweed, and in the foreground Norham Castle whose 
embattled towers shine in the yellow luster of sunset. Warriors, 
pacing at guard upon the high turrets, are seen distinctly out- 
lined against the evening sky, and their armor flashes back the 
western blaze in lines of dazzling light that fall athwart the 
gathering dusk. We are near enough to see that St. George's 
banner hangs heavily in the still air, and to hear faintly the old 
Border song hummed by the Warder, as he paces the gloomy 
portal arch above the barred gates. 

And now the stage begins to fill — a herald on horseback, 
having blown his bugle-horn as he dashed up, announces the 
approach of Lord Marmion, and forty yeomen speed to unbar 
the iron-studded gates. Then appears Lord Marmion himself on 
his red-roan charger. We see the coal-black hair and mustache,' 
here and there a bit grizzled, the eye of fire that flashes under 
his dark brow, and the warrior's scar on his brown cheek. He 



SCOTT'S USE OF COLOR 43 

wears mail of shining Milan steel, and a falcon-crested helmet of 
burnished gold. On his shield appears again the falcon of his 
crest, sable in an azure field. And now we are bidden to 
observe that this azure hue is to be seen on all sides : 

Blue was the charger's broidered rein ; 
Blue ribbons decked his arching mane ; 
The knightly housing's ample fold 
Was velvet blue, and trapped with gold. 

But the train of Lord Marmion is advancing. Behind the two 
gallant squires that immediately follow him come four men-at- 
arms, the last one bearing his master's "forky pennon." 

Like swallow's tail, in shape and hue, 
Fluttered the streamer, glossy blue, 
Where, blazoned sable, as before, 
The towering falcon seemed to soar. 
Last, twenty yeomen, two and two. 
In hosen black, and jerkins blue. 
With falcons broidered on each breast. 
Attended on their lord's behest. 

After a-fiourish of trumpets, two pursuivants hail Lord Marmion, 
and marshal him to the castle hall, into which he and his train 
disappear as the herald loudly cries, 

" Room, lordlings, room for Lord Marmion, 
With the crest and helm of gold ! " 

Here everything is admirably arranged for spectacular effect. 
Each detail could be represented upon the stage. The people 
are brought on in approved theatrical manner ; the few colors 
are clear and strong, contrasted yet harmonious. 

If we failed at first to understand the purport of the scene on 
the drop-curtain, we are no longer in doubt when once we have 
followed Lord Marmion into the castle and witnessed the cool- 
ness that underlies the courteous manner of both host and guest. 
The gray desolation of the prefatory scene struck the keynote of 
the succeeding action. 

We must not linger on this dramatic phase of Scott's work, 
though we may note in passing how fully the next canto oi Mar- 



44 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

mion bears out our deductions from the first canto. There the 
drop-curtam has two contrasted scenes — one showing a lonely 
thorn standing sentinel over waste glens ; the other, the same spot 
clothed, as it once was, with a fair forest through which leap the 
red deer, followed by gallant greyhounds and merry hunters. 
The poet again expresses for us the sentiments of the scene. 
Then follow a succession of tableaux in which we see a bark con- 
taining the Abbess of St. Hilda and nine nuns cross the North 
seas from Whitby. As they reach the Holy Isle, the nuns sing 
St. Hilda's song, and down from the " solemn, huge, and dark-red " 
monastery of St. Cuthbert file the monks and nuns to welcome 
their sisters, while 

Conspicuous by her veil and hood, 
Signing her cross, the Abbess stood 
And blessed them with her hand. 

As we follow the canto through we guess why the poet gave us 
on the drop-curtain those two contrasted scenes — the one full 
of green and lusty life, the other waste and gray. It was to pre- 
pare us for the scenes within the monastery walls ; for there, 
while the Whitby nuns and St. Cuthbert's daughters close round 
the fire in the high rooms that overlook the sea and with pious 
exultation 

all, in turn, essay to paint 
The rival merits of their saint, 

the fearful tragedy of Constance de Beverley's trial and murder 
is being enacted in a secret aisle beneath. These two scenes, so 
wide apart in their messages to human hearts, the one so full of 
innocent pleasure and holy peace, the other so intensely and 
pathetically tragic, are put before us simultaneously. It is as if 
the poet had in mind such a two-storied stage as that of the old 
miracle pageants, where men and demons were acting below, 
while saints and angels went through their parts above. 

I have dwelt upon these cantos somewhat at length because 
they exhibit so clearly the dramatic and spectacular instinct that 
underlies all of Scott's work. His men and women are of chief 
importance to him. Nature being made, in almost every case, to 



SCOTT'S USE OF COLOR 45 

serve as a background for human emotions or human deeds. 
Scenes are chosen which will give an appropriate setting — his- 
toric, or romantic, or symbolic — to the dramatis personce. As 
the story develops, the scenes, of course, shift, the poet always 
giving us a moment's pause that we may catch the main features 
of the new background. Such a beautiful scene, for example, as 
that disclosed at the beginning of The Lady of the Lake has its 
dramatic justification, not so much in its intrinsic beauty as in the 
fitting romantic background which it supplies for the figures of 
hero and heroine about to appear. It goes farther than the mere 
furnishing of stage scenery : it strikes the keynote of peace and 
love that is to dominate the intercourse of Fitz James and Ellen. 
And Scott's use of color shows, in little, the same traits and 
the same underlying purpose that are manifest in his dramatic 
narrative as a whole. Wordsworth's coloring is emotional and 
yet pervaded with the soul-truthfulness of a steady mind and a 
steady eye. Shelley's coloring is emotional, nascent, in a con- 
stant state of change — imaginatively true but subtle rather than 
realistic. Scott's colors are fresh, distinct, steady, true to the 
actual hues of the world about us; and they are handled by Scott 
as the costumer and scene-painter would handle his colors in 
setting a play. They exhibit the same appeal to the romantic 
feelings of the reader, through devices- naively artificial and 
addressed to the senses rather than to the mind; the same 
compound of freshness and of conventionality, of limelight and 
of sunlight; and the same striving after scenic effect in the 
unfolding of the narrative. 



CHAPTER VI. 
Coleridge's use of color. 

Text used: Foeizcal IVofh. I voL Macmillan, 1873. 
Number of lines, 20,189. 
For vocabulary see p. 108. 

If we consult the comparative tables to learn how Coleridge 
stands as a colorist, we shall see that both in extent of vocabulary 
(Table I) and in amount of color-usage (Table II) he strikes 
almost the exact average of thepoets there represented. Further, 
when we limit our comparison to poets of his own school, it will 
appear that, despite his rather meager coloring, Coleridge comes 
very near to the average color-scale (Table Y) of the Roman- 
ticists. The proportions in which he distributes his colors 
between Man, Nature, and abstractions vary only 1-2 per cent, 
from the Romantic average,' as will be seen from the subjoined 
.condensation of Table VII : 

Man 

Scott, ----- 50 

Coleridge, - - - - 39 

Wordsworth, - - - - 26 

Byron, - - - - 58 

Shelley, - - - - - 31 

Keats, - - - - 41 

Average 41 54 5 

This intermediate position of Coleridge as regards the larger 
range of English verse is not only apparent, but real ; he clasps 
hands with both predecessors and contemporaries, uniting in 

^ For other periods we have these figures : 

Langland, Gower, and Chaucer, 

Spenser and Shakspere, 

Pope, ------ 

46 



Nature 


Abstractions, etc. 


48 


2 


55 


6 


72 


2 


33 


9 


63 


6 


54 


5 



Man 


Nature 


Abstractions, etc 


54 


36 


10 


63 


29 


8 


23 


47 


10 



COLERIDGE'S USE OF COLOR 47 

himself, as we shall see later, the color-methods of Classicist and 
Romanticist/ 

Keats, as the first of the condensed tables on p. 46 shows, 
approximates even more nearly than Coleridge to the mean color- 
distribution of the Romantic Period ; and therefore, if we are to 
lay any stress upon the agreement of Coleridge's average with that 
of his school, we shall have to explain the same fact for Keats. 
In the case of Keats, however, we have, throughout his few years 
of poetic production, a uniform and impartial interest in both 
Man and Nature. The coincidence of his color-average with that 
of his school may be exemplified in detached portions of his work 
as well as in the whole; it represents a full, sustained, and spon- 
taneous affection for all the aspects of the world he studied. 

Coleridge's agreement with the average, on the other hand, is 
not to be explained as a steady impartiality of affection. The 
student of his work as a whole finds that his interest in color is 
not sustained, but that he shows now one preference, now another. 
Broadly speaking, his verse falls into two classes — that pro- 
duced before and that produced after 1796. In the former he is 
conventional and unspontaneous, imitative, by Romantic instinct, 
of the earlier non-classical poets, Spenser, Milton, Gray, and 
Bowles, but proving his immaturity by the "classic" slavishness 
of that imitation. In the latter period, after his marriage, and 
after his friendship with Wordsworth was formed, Coleridge 
produced all of his best and most characteristic work. Thus his 
agreement wtth the Romantic average is not, as in the case of, 
Keats, the result of a steady, balanced richness of production 
but of the equalizing of two different tendencies, the one imitative 
of an earlier period in which Man was the important object, the 
other in harmony with the predominant Nature interest of his 
own time. 

' Since writing the above I have with interest noted what Mr. Richard 
Garnett s^ji, in the introduction to his recent edition of The Poetical Works of 
Coleridge — that Coleridge is " the incarnate transition, so to speak, from the 
eighteenth to the nineteenth century. . . . The poetries of the eighteenth and 
nineteenth centuries lie associated within the covers of his writings. . . . He 
has the unique distinction among the singers of his time of himself exemplify- 
ing the antagonistic styles within the limits of his own verse." 



48 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

I have called Coleridge's early color imitative, for this great 
borrower was but too likely, wherever he found in the pages of 
another an idea with which he fully agreed, to appropriate both 
the spirit and the form of the idea. Of the borrowings in his 
verse less has been said than of those in his prose. Yet the 
early poems are full of verbal echoes of the poets who happened 
from time to time to occupy his thoughts. Sometimes the echo 
is heard in the swing of the verse — e. g., in the Destruction 
of the Bastile the influence of Gray's odes is unmistakable ; 
sometimes it comes in the prevailing sentiment — e. g., the son- 
nets T/te Tear which Mourned and / too a Sister had recall 
the pensive manner of Bowles; sometimes borrowed word and 
phrase are blended with his own in such a way that they can 
hardly be disentangled, yet so that they recall to the reader 
Spenser, or Milton, Gray, Bowles, or Wordsworth — e. g., stanza 
vi, in Dejection, which manifestly echoes Wordsworth's Ode 
.... Immortality ; or the Song of the Pixies and Lines on an 
Autumnal Evening, whose subtle echoes of Comus and // Penseroso 
Brandl has noted {loc. cit., 83). In his manner of using other 
authors, Coleridge stands midway between a man like William 
Godwin, whose pages are sprinkled with direct quotations from 
the Bible, Shakspere, and other well-known sources, and a man 
like Charles Lamb, half the charm of whose essays lies in their 
"quotations in solution." Coleridge's borrowings are neither 
frankly acknowledged, nor so fully recast by his genius as to 
make acknowledgment unnecessary. They are in a state of 
semi-solution. 

We are here concerned, however, with those borrowings only 
which contain words of color. They are found chiefly in the 
poems written before 1 796. Here Coleridge shows himself a verit- 
able chameleon, unconsciously taking the color of that upon which 
he feeds. His "amber" {Autumnal Evening, 4 ; Lewti, 21) seems 
to be an echo of Milton's D Allegro, 61 ; "sable" {Pixies, 84), of 
Paradise Lost,ll, ()62; "sable "( Teakettle, 35), the "black" of II Pen- 
seroso, 17; "pale ivy" {Pixies, 30) of Spenser's Virgil's Gnat, 222, 
675, as that was of Virgil's " pallente hedera^ His description of 
the glow-worm in Shurton Bars, 5, Coleridge himself, in a note, 



COLERIDGE'S USE OF COLOR 49 

acknowledges to be taken from Wordsworth's An Evening Walk 
(version of 1793); while it is commonly known that the "brown" 
hand of the Ancient Mariner was a touch added by Wordsworth. 
There are also debts to Dorothy Wordsworth's y<??/r«a/ for Janu- 
ary and March, 1 798, in the stanzas added to Christabel a year after 
it was first written (<?.^., the "thin grey cloud, "1. 16; the "one red 
leaf," 1. 49), though, as they record observations made by the 
Wordsworths and Coleridge together, it is only just to consider 
them touches to which the latter had a perfect right. And an 
obvious borrowing from Bowles's 

How sweet the tuneful bell's responsive peal ! 
As when, at opening morn, the fragrant breeze 
Breathes on the trembling sense of pale disease, 

{The Bells, Ostend), 
is found in Coleridge's lines 

But ah ! not music's self, nor fragrant bower. 
Can glad the trembling sense of wan disease. 

— Pain, 3-4. 

In Coleridge's early verse colors are either borrowed, as in the 
cases above cited, or embalmed in trite phrases and mythological 
commonplaces that would be wholly in keeping with. Pope's imi- 
tators : "coal-black steed," "red ruin," " purple Pride," " white- 
robed Purity," "pallid Fear," "black tide of death," etc., etc. 
Had Coleridge's color-sense been full and a source of especial 
pleasure to him, it is not likely that he would have so easily 
accepted lines at second-hand. But it is almost certain that his 
greater sense-pleasures lay elsewhere. Sounds, for instance, 
appealed to him more than hues did. We have one natural bit 
of color-recollection in the Sonnet to the Otter, but with that 
exception it is not until the stimulus of Sara's love and Words- 
worth's friendship combine ^o arouse his independent self to 
action that Coleridge ceases to look through the eyes of others and 
tells us frankly what he sees with his own. He then writes poems 
like The Eolian Harp and Reflections ofi . . . . Retirement, in which 
we find very little color, it is true, but in which that little bears 
the stamp of reality. 

From this time on, in the poems which are generally adjudged 



50 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

the truest expressions of Coleridge's genius, the neutral-tinted 
abstractions and echoed commonplaces of color decrease. We 
find in their places either realistic colors recorded by an observ- 
ant eye, or intense and unnatural hues deliberately employed to 
produce an effect of the supernatural. The latter may be seen 
in The Ancient M.ariner, whose weird effects are heightened by 
the "copper sky," the "bloody sun," the water that "burned 
green, and blue, and white/' the sailors' " black lips baked," the 
skin of Life-in-Death, " white as leprosy," the " still and awful red " 
of the ship's huge shadow, the water snakes in their " rich attire, 
blue, glossy-green, and velvet black," and the uncanny mystery 
of the "crimson " specters which came rising from the bay that 
was "white with silent light." 

Here Coleridge is no imitator; he is original, creative. And 
he is quite as far from imitation in the few passages where he has 
taken pains to record his observations of Nature's true colors. 
The most notable of these are the two following: 

A curious picture, with a master's haste 
Sketched on a strip of pinky-silver skin 
Peeled from the birchen bark ! 

— The Picture, 159-61. 

All this long eve, so balmy and serene, 

Have I been gazing on the western sky, 
And its peculiar tint of yellow-green : 

Arid still I gaze — and with how blank an eye ! 
And those thin clouds above, in flakes and bars, 
That give away their motion to the stars ; 
Those stars, that glide behind them or between, 
Now sparkling, now bedimmed, but always seen ; 
Yon crescent moon, as fixed as if it grew 
In its own cloudless, starless lake of blue"; 
I see, not feel, how beautiful they are ! 

My genial spirits fail ; 

And what can these avail 
To lift the smothering weight from off my breast ? 

It were a vain endeavour. 

Though I should gaze forever 
On that green light that lingers in the west : 



COLERIDGE'S USE OF COLOR 51 

I may not hope from outward forms to win 

The passion and the life, whose fountains are within. 

— Dejection, 27-46. 

The last citation is a suitable one with which to close an 
account of Coleridge's color, since it contains his most careful 
color-study — of the evening sky's " peculiar tint of yellow-green," 
— and at the same time contains his acknowledgment that, gaze 
though he may forever on that green light, it is from other founts 
that he must draw the inspiration which color fails to afford him. 
Like Wordsworth, Coleridge is unable to find in color the full 
satisfaction of an sesthetic sense which in Wordsworth was strongly 
moral, and in himself was more susceptible to the law underlying 
beauty than to the beauty itself. The hymning of color as color, 
the attribution of vital divinity to the pure hue, has been reserved 
for our own time and for Mr. George Meredith. 



CHAPTER VII. 



WORDSWORTH S USE OF COLOR. 



Text used : Poetical Works. I vol. Macmillan, 1891. 
Number of lines, 53,343. 
For vocabulary see p. 109. 

Knowing Wordsworth's love for Nature and his fidelity to her 
teachings, we come to the study of his poetry with a reasonable 
expectation of finding his colors, so far as he may employ them, 
true to the time, the place, and the object described. Knowing, 
too, his unswerving conscientiousness in the recording of his 
own thoughts and feelings, we are also justified in the expecta- 
tion that, if he has any definite opinions on the subject of 
color in general, or any strong feeling for individual colors, such 
opinion or feeling will find mention in his self-analytic verse. In 
another poet, absence of comment as to the influence of some 
special phase of Nature upon his own emotions might count for 
nothing ; in a man like Wordsworth, who so studiously searched 
his mind for the truths that nature had impressed there, failure 
to mention such an influence argues a failure to feel it — cer- 
tainly a failure to feel it in any strength. 

Our first expectation is abundantly fulfilled. From An Even- 
ing Walk, written before the poet was twenty, to the lines Sug- 
gested by a Picture of the Bird of Paradise, written when he was 
seventy-five, the strokes of color are plainly the result of per- 
sonal observation, and are both truthful and suggestive, both real 
and idealized. Unlike Coleridge and Byron, Wordsworth passed 
through no period of immaturity in his observations of external 
Nature. His understanding of her depths of significance was 
reached only after a long period of study, but from the first his 
eye was accurate and his mind unbiased by book-knowledge; 
and this individuality and honesty are evident in his use of 
color. On the second point, Wordsworth's direct recognition of 
52 



WORDSWORTH'S USE OF COLOR 53 

color as an influence, potent or impotent, in the development of 
his inner self, we naturally seek for evidence in his autobio- 
graphic poems, particularly in Books I, II, IV, and XII of the 
Prelude. 

Looking back with reverential joy to the " fair seed-time " of 
his soul, Wordsworth tells us in Book I some of the "remember- 
able things " that the earth and common face of Nature spoke to 
him. We may pass over the personal activities, those "glad ani- 
mal movements" {Tinteru, 74) that naturally form a large part 
of the memories of a healthy boyhood.' In addition to these 
memories of activities bound up with his own being, Wordsworth 
describes many impressions received from without. Those 
recalled with especial keenness and joy may be classified under 
the three heads: (i) Sound (with silence), (2) Motion (with 
rest), (3) Light (with shadow). Sometimes these memories 
stand out separately, sometimes they are blended ; but always 
they are described with the delicate accuracy of the poet who 
possesses 

a watchful heart 
Still couchant, an inevitable ear, 
And an eye practiced like a blind man's touch. 

— When to the attractiotts . . . . , 81-3. 

These memories were directly associated for Wordsworth with 
his higher, holier intercourse with Nature and with that Spirit of 
the Universe which gives "to forms and images a breath and 
everlasting motion" [Frel., I, 403). They spoke to him of a con- 
scious prompting soul behind " silent Nature's breathing life" 
[Feele, 28), and imparted to his own life mystery and grandeur, 
" inward hopes and swellings of the spirit " {Prel., IV, 163). 

The first book of the Prelude furnishes many instances of 
Wordsworth's " inevitable ear," and of the effect upon him both 
of movements, real and apparent, in the external world, and of 
" light and shade, each ministering to each." ^ 

To a heart so early stirred with the belief that all visible 

^ These may be indicated by the verbs employed in Prel., I, 291-316: 
bask, plunge, scour, leap, run, sport, range, said, ply. 

^See 11. 269-78, 336-9, 375-90, 433-44, 539-43, 559-72, 568-80. 



54 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

things "respired with inner meaning" {Frel.,111, 132.) is it 
strange that forms and colors, especially where these were not 
subject to growth or change, were less signiiicant than 

the clouds, 
The mist, the shadows, light of golden suns, 
Motions of moonlight {^Excursion, II, 712-14), 

and " the soul of happy sound " {Peter, I, 67) ? One citation 
must serve to illustrate Wordsworth's feeling for the sounds and 
motions of Nature, though an overwhelming number might be 
found in its support : 

Ye motions of delight, that haunt the sides 

Of the green hills ; ye breezes and soft airs 

Whose subtle intercourse with breathing flowers, 

Feelingly watched, might teach Man's haughty race 

How without injury to take, to give 

Without offence ; ye who, as if to show 

The wondrous influence of power gently used, 

Bend the complying heads of lordly pines. 

And, with a touch, shift the stupendous clouds 

Through the whole compass of the sky ; ye brooks, 

Muttering along the stones, a busy noise 

By day, a quiet sound in silent night ; 

Ye waves, that out of the great deep steal forth 

In a calm hour to kiss the pebbly shore, 

Not mute, and then retire, fearing no storm ; 

And you, ye groves, whose ministry it is 

To interpose the covert of your shades. 

Even as a sleep, between the heart of man 

And outwaid troubles, between man himself, 

Not seldom, and his own uneasy heart : 

Oh ! that I had a music and a voice 

Harmonious as your own, that I might tell 

What ye have done for me. 

— Prel., XII, 9 ff. 

But where shall we find in Wordsworth's poetry joy in color 
at all commensurate with this joy in sound and motion ? Once, 
indeed, when gazing at the full-flowered broom upon the steep, 
he delights 



WORDSWORTH'S USE OF COLOR 55 

To note in shrub and" tree, in stone and Hower, 
That intermixture of delicious hues 
Along so vast a surface, all at once. 
In one impression, by connecting force 
Of their own beauty, imaged on the heart 

( To Joanna, 46 ff.) ; 

but such passages are very infrequent, while we might fill many 
pages with exquisite expressions of his passion for that 

.... something far more deeply interfused. 
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
And the round ocean and the living air. 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man. 

— Tin tern, 96. 

He tells us that the scenes which were the witness of his boyish 
activities became " habitually dear " and that " all their forms 
and changeful colours" were fastened to his affections {Prel., I, 
609-12). This affection for forms and colors was, however, dis- 
tinctly subordinate to his love for murmuring wind and stream, 
or for the "soft eye-music of slow-waving boughs" {Airey-Force, 
14), or for the 

lights and shades 

That marched and countermarched about the hills 

In glorious apparition 

{Prel., XII, 96-8), 

a fact which is especially true of sounds, and notably of the 
murmuring of streams, his enjoyment of which is omnipresent 
in his verse : it formed his earliest recollection {Prel., I, 270), and 
in his seventy-seventh year he was still convinced that 

That voice of unpretending harmony 
******** 
Wants not a healing influence that can creep 
Into the human breast. 

— The tmreniittiiig voice, 6 ff. 

But, in contrast with the voice of wind and stream, forms 
and colors were to him external qualities. Nature's dress rather 
than utterances of her life ; and for this reason, though they 
appealed to Wordsworth's eye and were mingled with happy 



56 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

memories, they meant less and less to him as his mind became 
more mature and more watchful for " the latent qualities and 
essences of things" {Prel., II, 325). 

This we may prove for his colors in two ways, numerically 
and by citations. 

Take first the citations. In Lines composed .... above Tin- 
tern Abbey, written in 1798, is found this reference to the author's 
"boyish days" (the italics are mine) : 

I cannot paint 
What then I was. The sounding cataract 
Haunted me like a passion; the tall rock, 
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, 
Their colours and their forms, were then to me 
A n appetite ; a feeling and a love, 
That had tto need of a remoter charm. 
By thought supplied, nor any interest 
Unborrowed from the eye. — That time is past. 

In the Prelude, after we have learned of Wordsworth's early 
affection for " forms and changeful colours" (I, 611), and of the 
gradual weakening of those "incidental charms" which first 
attached his heart to rural objects (II, 198), we come, at length, 
to these self-reproachful lines : 

Soul of Nature ! that, by laws divine 
Sustained and governed, still dost overflow 
With an impassioned life, what feeble ones 
Walk on this earth ! how feeble have I been 
When thou wert in thy strength ! 

Bent overimich on superficial things. 
Pampering myself with meag7'e novelties 
Of colour and proportion ; ' to the moods 
Of time and season, to the moral power, 
The affections and the spirit of the place 

Insensible 

****** 

1 speak in recollection of a time 

When the bodily eye, in every stage of life 
^The italics are again mine, except in the case of the word me, line 130. 



WORDSWORTH'S USE OF COLOR 57 

The most despotic of our senses, gained 
Such strength in me as often held my mind 
In absolute dominion. 

— Prel., XII, I02 ff. 

As the horizon of my mind enlarged 

Again I took the intellectual eye 

For my instructor, studious more to see 

Great truths, than touch and handle little ones. 

— Prel., XIII, 51 ff. 

We have, therefore, the poet's own account of his emancipa- 
tion from the tyranny of the bodily eye and from a taste for the 
meager novelties of color and proportion. 

As for a Peter Bell — 

The primrose by the river's brim 
A yellow primrose was to him, 
And it was nothing more. 

Peter got from the flower simply and solely a color-impres- 
sion, never "thoughts that do lie too deep for tears." He was 
therefore counted dull indeed of sense by a poet like Words-, 
worth, the appetite of whose childish mind for external beauties 
was so early and so fully transcended by the bliss ineffable of 
communion with the God of Nature. 

The gradual diminution in Wordsworth's color-interest may 
also be proven numerically by a comparison of the amounts of 
color used at different periods of his life. For example, the 
color-average of the poems written before 1796 is 38 words per 
1,000 lines; that of the poems after 1830, 13 words per 1,000 
lines. Again, we naay take the records of his three continental 
tours — those of 1793, 1820, and 1837, — which are suited to our 
purpose because of nearly the same lengths, on similar subjects, 
and representative of three stages of his work and thought. The 
first group has in each 1,000 lines 65 color-words, the second 32, 
the third 13. 

We must therefore be careful not to estimate Wordsworth as 
a colorist by such early poems as An Evening Walk and Descrip- 
tive Sketches, which employ color as lavishly as do the early 
poems of Keats. The mind that 



58 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

difference 
Perceived in things, where, to the unwatchful ej^e, 
No difference is 

{Prel., II, 299-301), 

Wordsworth never lost. But he chose to exercise it less and less 
in the domain of color, and more and more in the subtler 
domains of Nature. 

I have dwelt on Wordsworth's subordination of color-percep- 
tions to other sense-perceptions more directly exhibiting the 
immanence of divine life in Nature, because this fact, when fully 
understood, becomes a key to his chief traits as a colorist. He 
was a worshiper of Nature's soul, loving every slightest token 
of its life. Such tokens he found not alone in Nature's motions 
and sounds, but also in her silence and repose ; for these did not 
speak to him of absence of life, but of life perfectly poised and 
controlled. In his times of inward turmoil, Nature restored him 
to "happy stillness" by her soothing calm; in times when his 
will and purpose lapsed, contact with her vigorous life gave him 
energy to renew his search for truth. These two moods he him- 
self recognized : 

From Nature doth emotions come, and moods 
Of calmness equally are Nature's gift : 
This is her glory ; these two attributes 
Are sister horns that constitute her strength. 

— Prel., XIII, 1-4. 

These two attributes, translated into color, represent Words- 
worth's strongest preferences in this field : the immortal Greens, 
forever quiet yet forever bearing witness of the earth's rejuvena- 
tion; shining Whites or Golds associated with the streaming lights 
of the sun, "pledge and surety of our earthly life (a light which 
we behold and feel we are alive) " ; and the placid Blues of 
dimpling lake or cloudless sky. 

To even these hues, however, he seldom gives more than 
a brief mention. They are never apostrophized as are the 
sounds of streams, the rhythmic movements of a wind-stirred 
tree, or the gleam of sun-lit water and curling mists. They 



WORDSWORTH'S USE OF COLOR 59 

constitute a pleasing but subordinate part of the scenes with 
which his memory is stored. 

" Green " is his most frequent color-word, and it is the green of 
the plant world: 275 of his 295 uses of the hue are applied, 
directly to vegetation. It holds a larger place in his later work 
than in his earlier, constituting only 18 per cent, of his color in 
poems written before 1798, but 30 per cent, of those after 1830. 

"Blue" ranks second among his terms for bright color, and 
with this, as with " green," we have a strongly predominant associa- 
tion with certain things. In 69 of its 89 occurrences it describes 
lake or sky. 

Yellows were pleasing to him when they had luster, as seen 
in lines like these : 

The sun, above the mountain's head, 

A freshening lustre mellow 
Through all the long green fields had spread, 

His first sweet evening yellow. 

— Tables Ttirned, 4-8.' 

Purple occurs with frequency in his early poems, but with a 
touch of conventionality. Later it is neglected, but its few 
occurrences bear the stamp of reality. 

It is in the number of his compounds of green and of blue 
that Wordsworth's color-vocabulary is most individual, e. g., 
"olive-green" and "pea-green" moss, " tawny-green " vegeta- 
tion, a "black-blue" sky, the "sapphire-blue" eye-bright. 

His hues are usually perfectly natural.^ In the few cases 
where they are heightened or over-emphasized it is with an aim 
at supernatural effect, an aim restricted to a very small portion 
of Wordsworth's work, and to poems written apparently under 
the influence of Coleridge's example. These poems are Feter 
Bell and The Thorn, both included in the Lyrical Ballads, and 
The White Doe, vfx\X.\.tn in 1807. In Peter Bell ^q have impos- 
sible effects in blue and gray and tender green in the deserted 

'See also Excursion, I, 718; IV, 1302; VII, 876; Desc. Sketches, 95; P7-el., 
VIII, 463 ; Joanna, 40. 

^We may perhaps except his "dark-brown shadows," and some rather 
conventional Purples. 



6o COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

quarry on a moonlit night ; in The Thorn we have mosses of 
extraordinary brilliancy covering an infant's grave; and in The 
White Doe the intense whiteness and radiance of the creature 
is so persistently dwelt upon that the repetition at last creates 
an uncanny impression in the reader's mind. 

Such use of color is, however, rare in Wordsworth. His 
color as a whole is truthful and discriminating. It is to a 
marked degree expended upon external Nature to the neglect of 
Man. It is cold rather than warm, and is most enjoyed when 
accompanied by luster and radiance. Abundant in his earliest 
poems, it drops in his latest to a percentage as low as Cowper's. 
As a whole he is less lavish of it than is any other of the 
Romantic poets ; and in his own esteem it is plainly an incidental 
and superficial quality, speaking God's message to the heart of 
man less directly than do mountain shadows, moving clouds, the 
smile of sunshine on mists and waters, or the music of wind 
and stream. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
byron's use of color. 

Text used : Poems and Dramas, i vol. Crowell & Co., New York. 

Number of lines, 59,999- 

For vocabulary see pp. log-io. 

Among the English Romantic poets Byron stands first in 
the amount of his poetic production. In the thirty-two years of 
his life he published more verse than either Scott or Coleridge, 
Shelley or Keats, and nearly seven thousand lines more than did 
Wordsworth in his long life of fourscore years. 

With so large a body of work from which to draw conclusions, 
we may speak with some assurance as to Byron's feeling for 
color and his manner of using it. Brief as was his period of 
production — only about eighteen years — his genius matured so 
rapidly, and took on so early its characteristic traits, that the 
work of his short life may reasonably be studied as a growth, in 
accordance with the features of its development. 

Two events in his life are of great moment because of the 
bent which each gave to his mind and his passions ; and the 
dates at which these events occurred therefore form convenient 
lines of demarcation in his color-treatment. The first of these 
is his "grand tour " to the continent in 1809-11, a tour which 
removed his thoiights from the subjects treated in English Bards 
and Scotch Reviewers, and turned them to the interests in travel 
and in foreign scenes which inspired almost all his best and most 
characteristic work. The second event is his flight from England 
in 1816, after the scandal occasioned by his separation from the 
woman who had been but one year his wife. This separation, 
causing as it did an unparalleled amount of discussion and 
censure in English society, and arousing against Byron the 
prejudices and suspicions of the English public, embittered the 
remaining years of the poet's life, and gave to his already 
61 



62 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

egoistic verse a satiric recklessness, a scorn of social conventions, 
and even of humanity, which set Beppo and Don Juan effectually 
apart froin Childe Harold, the Prisoner of Chillon, and the Siege 
of Corinth. 

Previous to his first journey abroad he published Hours of 
Idleness and English Bards and Scotch Reviewers — a body of 
work distinctly conventional and commonplace in sentiment, 
though clever and facile in execution. The color-treatment of 
this early work is of the same stamp, unoriginal and mannered 
both in vocabulary and in application. Of the few poems in this 
first volume which mention hues, Oscar of Alva is the chief, and 
here the influence of Scott's ballads is evident in lines like : 

Where Alva's hoary turrets rise. 

Or roll the crimson tide of war. 

Dark was the flow of Oscar's hair. 

Glenalvon's blue-eyed daughter came. 

The crimson glow of Allan's face 
Was turned at once to ghastly hue. 

A form was seen in tartan green. 

Dark Oscar's sable crest is low. 

What minstrel gray, what hoary bard 
Shall Allan's deeds on harpstrings raise. 

In the prose imitation of Ossian, included in the same volume, 
there is also a decidedly imitative use of color and color-formulae ; 
and the hues employed in English Bards reflect exactly the man- 
nerisms of Pope, Byron's model in the composition of the satire. 
Such original color-treatment as remains after the exclusion of 
stereotyped expressions like "Health's rosy wing," "the sable 
hues of Grief," " the rosy finger of the morn," is scanty indeed, 
but is nevertheless sufficient to show Byron's dawning interest in 
the hues of eyes, hair, and skin, and his love of the " dark-blue 
deep." We should, perhaps, not emphasize the predominance of 
these two color-interests over other color-usages, were it not that 
we have here, foreshadowed, even though dimly, the character- 
istic color-interest of Byron's verse as a whole. 



BYI^ON'S USE OF COLOR 63 

In noting, therefore, the distinctive features of this early and 
immature period in Byron's work, we find, first, a general meager- 
ness and conventionality of coloring ; and, second, a predominant 
interest in Man rather than in Nature. For the earth was not, 
to Byron's boyish mind, as to Thomson's, one vast 
innumerous-colour'd scene of things. 

When Byron writes of his Childish Recollections, he is ruled almost 
entirely by classic conventions of thought and phraseology, and 
the one color-touch of the 412 lines of this poem which we can 
feel was a part of real experience is contained in the line J 
plunging from the green declining shore, 

in which he describes his pleasure in swimming. And, thirdly, 
in our list of the color-characteristics indicated in these early 
poems, we have his enjoyment of the hues of large expanses of 
water. The "dark-blue" of the sea, so omnipresent in his maturer 
work, appears already in Dorset, 89 ; / would I were, 4 ; To 
Florence, 10 ; Thunderstorm, 56. 

Aside, then, from the barrenness of the first productive period, 
which we select as one of its three characteristics, we see hinted 
two color-preferences on the poet's part, an interest in Man rather 
than Nature, and a strong feeling for the color of the sea or of 
large expanses of water. These two lines of interest developed 
so markedly in Byron's maturer poetry, and form so large a part 
of his color- applications, that were we to remove from his verse 
the color-terms which he applies to man's face and form, and 
those he applies to the sea, he would lose 48 of the 1 1 1 words 
of his vocabulary, and 50 per cent, of his entire color. Of these 
48 terms, 5 only belong to the sea ; the remaining 43, running 
all through the scale from "pomegranate" to "purple-hectic," 
and from " swanlike " to " inky," are used in describing the face 
and hair of man (or woman) (see Chart A). 

As before remarked, Byron's first continental tour had a 
decided influence upon his mind and genius. He had hitherto 
been imitative and trite in both thought and phraseology, but 
in contact with foreign scenes and peoples he found a stimulus 
under which his mind awoke to originality and power. From 



64 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

this time, 1 809-11, while his interest in Man remains pre- 
dominant, and he never tires of the " dark-blue ocean," Byron 
shows a widening interest in Nature's hues, and a more genuine 
and natural manner of using them. This is best seen in Chil'de 
Harold, whose early cantos were published by Murray in 181 2, 
and first revealed to the English public the fact that a new 
poetic star had risen. Though this poem was continued some 
years later, and after work of quite a different tone was dividing 
with it the author's interest, its spirit is so consistent throughout 
that we maybe justified in considering it as a whole, and a whole 
produced under the impulses gained before Byron's reputation 
suffered so fierce a reverse in 1816. 

The first colors in Childe Harold %\.x\\.& the keynote of Byron's 
early interests, when he speaks of 

The laughing dames in whom he did delight, 
Whose large blue eyes, fair locks, and snowy hands, 
Might shake the saintship of an anchorite 

(I, xi); 
and then cries, 

Welcome, welcome, ye dark-blue waves ! 

— I, xiii, 10. 

That is, he begins on the old key of human and of ocean descrip- 
tion. But soon we feel a new atmosphere about us. The trav- 
eler finds as he approaches the shores of Spain that 

it is a goodly sight to see 
What Heaven hath done for this delicious land ! 
What fruits of fragrance blush on every tree ! 
What goodly prospects o'er the hills expand ! 

1, XV. 

Byron now begins to notice the beauty of a particular Nature- 
scene and to describe it with his eye on the object, as in I, xix; 
II, xvii, xlii, xlviii-xlix, li-lii. In such descriptions his power 
does not lie so much in the form or color of specific objects as in 
the skill with which he groups them. He thus secures fine effects 
in the general composition of his pictures, but his detail is likely 
to be vague and evasive. x\n artist illustrating the Childe Harold 
would find the general hues of large expanses given him fre- 



BYRON'S USE OF COLOR 65 

quently by the poet: skies " azure" or "blue;" waters "azure," 
"blue," "dark-blue," "green " or "deep green," "dun," "gray" or 
simply "dark;" forests "green," "hoar," "dark," "black" — but 
in details he would be unrestricted. Byron's color-interest, so 
far as it is given to Nature, is notably weak in the direction of 
minuti^. To the hues of animals and flowers no poet whom I 
have studied pays so little heed (see D-F, Table VII). His whole 
bouquet contains but one " deep-blue " violet and two roses, 
"purple" and "white." And his list of animal hues is almost 
as brief. For the small objects of the outside world he seems 
to have had little affection, here forming the strongest contrast 
to a man like Cowper, whose most attractive bits of Nature study 
are devoted to birds and flowers. 

But if neglectful of Nature's smaller details and more delicate 
manifestations, Byron expressed strong love for her in her more 
general aspects and wilder moods : 

Oh ! she is fairest in her features wild, 

Where nothing polished dares pollute her path : 

To me by day or night she ever smiled, 

Though I have marked her where none other hath 

And sought her more and more, and loved her best in wrath. 

— Childe Harold, II, xxxvii. 

Where rose the mountains, there to him were friends, 
Where rolled the ocean, thereon was his home. 

— Ill, xiii. 

Are not the mountains, waves, and skies, a part 
Of me and of my soul, as I of them ? 
Is not the love of these deep in my heart 
With a pure passion ? Should I not contemn 
All objects, if compared with these ? 

—Ill, Ixxv. 
Oh night, 
And storm, and darkness, ye are wondrous strong, 
Yet lovely in your strength, — III, xcii. 

Sky, mountains, river, winds, lake, lightnings ! ye ! 

With night, and clouds, and thunder, and a soul 

To make these felt and feeling, well may be 

Things that have made me watchful. — III, xcvi. 



66 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

In the last citation we have in a nutshell the phases of the 
external world that appealed most strongly to Byron. They indi- 
cate his love for mystery and darkness, his " fierce and far delight " 
{Childe, III, xciii) in the vast, the somber, and the passionate 
aspects and moods of Nature. 

Byron's Nature-coloring, then, follows the lines of his general 
interest in being applied to large surfaces, in giving the prefer- 
ence to deep, dark shades, and in seeking twilight and night 
effects. The preference for dark hues is peculiarly characteristic 
of Byron, as characteristic as the love of high-lights is of Words- 
worth. Blacks, Browns, Purples, and Reds form more than half 
of his vocabulary, and his other hues are frequently darkened, 
the better to suit his taste. Thus he has "dark green," "deep 
green," "dull green," "dusky green," "sea green," "dark blue," 
" deep blue," and "dark gray ;" and even hues already rich and 
deep he likes to intensify by throwing them into compounds 
like "swarthy blush," "purple hectic," "deepest purple," "death- 
black." 

Byron's color effects at night form but a small part of his 
color as a whole, but they mejit notice because of their unusual 
nature. Twice in Cain the purple of the night sky is mentioned. 
Adah describes Lucifer as 

Like an ethereal night, where long white clouds 

Streak the deep purple. — Cain, I, i, 508-9. 

And Cain, as he journeys through space, speaks of 

The very blue of the empurpled night (H, i, 179), 

and again of 

The deep blue noon of night. — II, ii, 254. 

In Childe Harold (IN, cxviii) "purple midnight" occurs, and in 
the Siege of Corinth a complete night scene is painted in colors : 

'Tis midnight : on the mountains brown 
The cold round moon shines deeply down ; 
Blue roll the waters, blue the sky 
Spreads like an ocean, hung on high. 



BYRON'S USE OF COLOR 67 

The waves on either shore la}^ there 

Calm, clear, and azure as the air. — Corinth, 242. 

The explanation of such coloring as this is found in the habits of 
Byron's daytime brush, rather than in his careful study of unusual 
effects in Nature. 

In fact, despite Byron's protestations as to his love of Nature, 
a study of his verse, and of the color-treatment in his verse, proves 
that the poet's professions and his practice were two quite differ • 
ent things. While he says 

I live not in myself, but I become 

Portion of that around me, and to me 

High mountains are a feeling, but the hum 

Of human cities torture, {Childe, III, Ixxii), 

he really devotes 65 per cent, of his color to Man and abstrac- 
tions, and it is only in the Childe Harold and in passages where 
he depicts the ocean. 

Dark-heaving, boundless, endless, and sublime. 

The image of Eternity, the throne 

Of the Invisible, {Childe, IV, clxxxii), 

that his Nature-hues equal those expended on human beings. Nor 
does this field of human color-treatment develop, in the sense in 
which Wordsworth's study of Nature was progressive and devel- 
oping. Rather Byron's color is frittered away in his latest work 
on details of dress and ornament, expended, with a childish or 
oriental delight in gay hues, on descriptions of furniture and 
costume. No better example of this can be offered than Do// 
Juan, III, Ixiv-lxxvii, where a whole vocabulary of bright and 
heterogeneous color is expended upon the garb and surround- 
ings of Juan and Haidee. 

Moreover, after his banishment from England Byron's use of 
colors, like the general tone of his verse, becomes reckless as it 
becomes more prodigal, is employed more and more as an access- 
ory to sensuous or even sensual pleasure. This is pre-eminently 
true of Don Juan. The Cain and the Heaven and Earth, both 
dramatic in character, while far more elevated in tone, are at the 
same time rather sparing of color. In fact, these two "myste- 



68 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

ries" and the Hebrew Melodies prove to a striking degree how 
well Byron, if he chose, could tune his instrument to a lofty reli- 
gious note. The production, at dates so near together, of Don 
Juan and of Cain shows distinctly the dual nature of their author, 
shows the range of passion which extended from the Destruction 
of Sennacherib, with its effective, emphatic color-touches dropped 
along the sweep of a picture drawn apparently by a triumphant 
religious enthusiast, to the bitter frivolity and sensual voluptu- 
ousness with which Byron depicts one of the frail beauties of 
Don Juan. And, again, the last cantos of Childe Harold were 
written almost simultaneously with the opening portions of Don 
Juan; the finest of his Nature work, therefore, at the same time 
with the most sensual, debased, and thoroughly animal of all his 
productions. 

In Byron's best poems, those written after the awakening pro- 
duced in his mind by foreign travel, and comparatively free from 
the reckless cynicism of his last work, his color-treatment, while 
evincing no particular originality of perception or beauty of treat- 
ment, is yet liberal, fairly truthful, and generally healthy. His 
predominant interest is in Man, notwithstanding his oft-repeated 
declarations as to his love for Nature and for wild solitudes. The 
noteworthy feature of his work, and that which especially sets him 
apart from contemporary poets, is the fact that, as his color grows 
more abundant in his preferred field, it becomes more debased 
in its application ; that, instead of renouncing color, as did 
Wordsworth, in favor of nobler instruments of Nature-representa- 
tion, instead of developing a more definite characterization and 
treatment of color, as did Coleridge, Byron, at the very moment 
when he had attained mastery of his art and of its tools, chose to 
employ one of the most efficient of those tools in degrading rather 
than in elevating the tone of his work. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Shelley's use of color. 

Text used : lVoi-ks, Vols. I-IV. Forman edition. 8 vols. Reeves & 
Turner, 1880. 

Number of lines, 30,030. 
For vocabulary see p. no. 

Professor Dovvden says of Shelley: " Other poets have more 
faithfully represented the concrete facts Of the world, the charac- 
ters of many men, the infinite variety of human passions. No 
other poet has pursued with such breathless speed, on such aerial 
heights, the spirit of ideal beauty " [loc. cit., p. 17). This state- 
ment is not only true of Shelley's poetry as a whole, but also 
eminently true of his color, which seldom connects itself with 
concrete objects, but is aerial, ideal, beautiful, breathlessly swift 
in its progressions and transmutations. 

Wordsworth chid himself for his youthful love of "the meagre 
novelties of form and colour " and turned from these to commune 
with the more " latent qualities and hidden essences of things " 
(p. 56). But Shelley, instead of finding color an external, 
superficial quality of objects, saw it palpitating at the very heart 
of things — fluid, changing, "immovably unquiet" {Ode to 
Liberty, 78). As day dawns, 

in a fleece of snow-like air, 
The crimson pulse of living morning quivers. 

— Epips., 9Q-I00. 

As day dies, the mountain peaks are rendered transparent by 

The inmost spirit of purple light. — Juliait, 84. 

A beautiful dream-creature is depicted with wings 

Tipt with the speed of liquid lightenings, 
Dyed in the ardours of the atmosphere. 

—Atlas, XXXVII. 
69 



70 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

As the frail Lionel grew day by day weaker, 

the light which flashed through his waxen cheek 
Grew faint, as the rose-like hues which flow 
From sunset o'er the Alpine snow. — Rosalmd, 1 009-11. 

The universe is filled with 

sapphire floods of interstellar air. 

— Hellas, 770. 

The hues Shelley loved are everywhere moving, pulsing, 
changing. They are spirits of the mist, as fleeting and beautiful 
as the tremulous surface of the soap-bubble. The dewdrop, as 
it goes through its cycle of being, is but the incarnate spirit of 
Shelley's coloring — 

A half infrozen dew-globe, green, and gold, 
And crystalline, till it becomes a winged mist 
And wanders up the vault of the blue day, 
Outlives the noon, and on the sun's last ray 
Hangs o'er the sea, a fleece of fire and amethyst. 

— Prom., IV, 432. 

So near to the heart of things does color seem to Shelley that he 
has connected it with life itself, which, 

like a dome of many-coloured glass, 
Stains the white radiance of Eternity. 

— Adonais, LII. 

Yet with all the charm that color had for Shelley's eye, we 
have no evidence in his verse that it spoke to him of anything 
higher than beauty. The difference between his attitude and 
Wordsworth's does not lie in the fact that Shelley found in sensu- 
ous impressions what Wordsworth failed to find there. Words- 
worth saw the beauty, but this did not satisfy him. His soul 
longed for a communion with the divine soul of things, which he 
reached more fully through other channels. Shelley, however, 
was satisfied with the contemplation of beauty itself. To this he 
had consecrated himself (see Hymn to Intellectual Beauty), and in 
the enjoyment and pursuit of this he spent his powers of mind 
and soul. To him beauty was its own excuse for being, and he 
sought no interpretation of it. 



SHELLEY'S USE OF COLOR 71 

To understand Shelley's coloring it will not be necessary to 
consider his youthful work apart from that of his maturity, as it 
is helpful to do in the case of Pope, or Wordsworth, or Byron. 
Shelley, the poet of " splendours and glooms and glimmering 
incarnations," singer of " the deep air's unmeasured wilder- 
nesses," with its " untameable herds, meteors and mists," seems 
to have been born fully equipped as a colorist, and to have had 
Iris as his messenger from the first. 

My study of Shelley does not go to support Mr. Havelock 
Ellis's statement that, "Unlike most .... poets he began with 
no special love of colour, but developed it with his general develop- 
ment " [loc. cit., 721). On the contrary, I have found his youth- 
ful poems even richer in color than his later, so that the color- 
average of Queen Mab, Alastor, and The Revolt of Islam rises to 
56 words per 1,000 lines, whereas the average of his work as a 
whole is but 48 words (Table II). 

In spite, however, of this somewhat greater wealth of color 
in the verse of his earlier years, I have found it best to consider 
the salient features of his color as a whole, because his range of 
hues and his manner of using them are essentially the same 
throughout his brief life. These salient characteristics, the chief 
of which I have already mentioned, are ideality, beauty, evanes- 
cence, translucence, and a preference for the visionary and 
unsubstantial rather than for the concrete. 

The percentages stated in Table VII give a very imperfect 
notion of the overwhelming amount of creative and imaginative 
coloring in Shelley's verse. Under the division Man I have con- 
stantly included all visionary creatures and abstractions personi- 
fied as human beings ; and in the realistic work of most of the 
poets here considered this classification has been quite accurate 
enough. Spenser's personages or Milton's may with justice be con- 
sidered as human beings, but such is not the case with Shelley's. 
Even a real flesh and blood woman like Emilia Viviani becomes 
to his imagination a creature etherealized, moving about in worlds 
unrealized — a " Veiled Glory of this lampless universe " {Epips., 
26). It is impossible in studying Shelley's verse to distinguish 
between the real and the imaginary, the human and the super- 



72 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

human. When the table shows us a percentage of about one- 
fourth of Shelley's total color-interest devoted to Man, this 
means a much smaller actual amount, since the bulk of his color- 
instances in that field are applied to the ideal, skyey creatures 
of his imagination, the 

lovely apparitions, dim at first, 
Then radiant, as the mind, arising bright 
From the embrace of beauty, whence the forms 
Of which these are the phantoms, casts on them 
The gathered rays which are reality. 

— Prom., Ill, iii, 4g ff. 

The same is true in the world of Nature. Actual observation and 
study is at a minimum with Shelley. Professor I)owden [loc. cit., 
182) says of him that his shorter studies of Nature are inspira- 
tions rather than transcriptions, and this we are ready to believe 
when we read of "bloomy spring's star-bright investiture" {Islam, 
IV, xxxii), or of " the ^olian music" of the sunlight's " sea-green 
plumes winnowing the crimson dawn " (Prom., II, i, 26). 

We do not, however, lack for real Nature — " the orange light 
of widening morn" {^Prom.,\\, i, 18),. "lines of gold, hung on 
the ashen clouds" {Sunset, 13) after sunset, "the blue noon's 
burning sky" {Snnsel, 3), " day's ruddy light" seen through the 
delicate hand of an invalid (Sunset, 42), a hill seen "hoary 
through the white electric rain " [M. Gisborne, 124), " weeds like 
branching chrysolite" (Rosalind, 1083) — , although most of Shel- 
ley's realities are in the distance or in the shifting sky. 

But in spite of these touches of realistic beauty, the predom- 
inant color-effects of Shelley's verse are those of a dream Nature, 
a "series of lyric pictures" wherein the figures are of indistinct 
and visionary delineation (see Preface to Hellas^. 

It follows naturally from the above that Shelley is a poet of 
the ideal rather than of the real, of the delicate and beautiful 
rather than of the commonplace. His hues are used for beauty, 
the only ones employed with unpleasant intent being " black," 
"blanched," "bleached," "brimstone," "lurid," "livid," "livid- 
blue," " pitchy," " swart," " red " (of bloodshed), and " yellow " 
(used of death, death-spasms, a Jew, jealousy, the livery of Peter 



SHELLEY'S USE OF COLOR 73 

Bell, etc.). Otherwise color is for Shelley almost invariably a 
giver of delight. His pages reveal to us many delicate and 
unusual hues — "amethystine," "dawn-tinted," "rose-ensan- 
guined," "deep red gold," " moonlight coloured," "chrysolite," 
— as well as many beautiful color-similes containing comparisons 
to objects that never had existence outside the poet's brain. For 
such similes •&&& Euganean Hills, 2%(i ff.; ^/(a:i-/(?r, 433 ff.; Atlas, 
XX, XXXIX, LVII ; Prom., IV, 205-35 ; Sensitive Plant, III, 26. 

Still, Shelley uses in the main the commoner color-words, 
enhancing their beauty by his manner of using them, for he is 
skilled in making " strange combinations out of common 
things": "blue oceans of young air" {Epips., 460), "smoke 
wool-white as ocean foam" {Rosalind, 1092), "the azure time of 
June" {^Rosalind, 957). 

That which is markedly peculiar to Shelley in his application 
of color is the varying evanescent pulsation which he seems to 
see, and to delight to see, in all bright hues. Especially is this 
true when he is observing or creating atm.ospheric effects : 
"rainbow-skirted showers," "liquid mists of splendour," "light 
on a careering stream of golden clouds," 

That Light whose smile kindles the Universe, 
That Beauty in which all things live and move. 

— Adonais, LIV. 
Into Shelley's color 

A maze of light and life and motion 

Is woven. — Rosalind, 129-30. 

Indeed the very word "woven" had for him a charm. This 
and its related forms "weave," "wove," and "woof," with such 
kindred words as "braided," "intertwined," " intertangled," etc., 
he repeatedly applies to the insubstantial fabric of light and mist, 
of sound and odor and hue. Mr. Havelock Ellis has called 
attention to this fact, as well as to Shelley's admiration of fire, 
that embodiment of "life and light and motion." The two 
preferences just named may be advantageously studied in The 
Witch of Atlas. In fact, Shelley's art as a poet-painter closely 
resembles that of the Witch herself, who 



74 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

took her spindle, 
And twined three threads of fleecy mist, and three 
Long lines of light, such as the dawn may kindle 

The clouds and mountains with, and she 
As many star-beams, ere their lamp could dwindle 

In the belated moon, wound skilfully ; 
And with these threads a subtle veil she wove, 
A shadow for the splendour of her love. 

— Witch, XIII. 

A soul of such loves and such powers will naturally become 
the poet of an extra-mundane universe. Such is Shelley. 
Subtle robe of mist and splendor and "sinuous veil of woven 
wind" are not the clothing of everyday people in an everyday 
world ; they are suited only to radiant creations of the fancy. 
Nor does " light dissolved in star showers " shine upon Regent 
Street and the Strand. If Shelley's feet did touch the earth, his 
eyes were upon the "emerald main," the "misty mountains, wide 
and vast," and the "azure heaven." There he built up his 
visionary universe, " Obedient to the light that shone within his 
soul." There he placed each " shape of speechless beauty" spun 
" from the fine threads of rare and subtle thought," and there we 
may see his most beautiful coloring and most delicate effects of 
light and shade. 

Such a passage as that cited below exhibits in combination all 
the characteristics which I have mentioned as belonging to 
Shelley's color as a whole — its ideality, its beauty, its translucence, 
its pulsating life, its unsubstantiality, and its evanescence : 

The point of one white star is quivering still 

Deep in the orange light of widening morn 

Beyond the purple mountains : through a chasm 

Of wind-divided mist the darker lake 

Reflects it : now it wanes : it gleams again 

As the waves fade, and as the burning threads 

Of woven cloud unravel in the pale air : 

' Tis lost ! and through yon peaks of cloudlike snow 

The roseate sunlight quivers : hear I not 

The ^olian music of her sea-green plumes 

Winnowing the crimson dawn ? — Prom., II, i, 17-27. 



SHELLEY'S USE OF COLOR 75 

Shelley's color-sense was full and well balanced. He was a 
master in every line of hues and used all without any noteworthy 
limitations of partiality. His vocabulary of bright hues is made 
up of cold and warm tones in about equal proportions, though 
he uses Greens and Blues more than he does Reds and Yellows. 
He falls below the poetic average in Reds, Greens, and Blacks, 
but rises above it in Blues, Grays, and Golds. 

In the distribution of his colors, however, Shelley does not 
show the impartiality that he does in their choice. He manifests 
an overwhelming preference for atmospheric and skyey phenom- 
ena, for " pageantry of mists," and " the varying roof of 
heaven." An hour's reading of his verse will demonstrate this 
as conclusively as a page of quotations. 

Other sense-preferences than that for light and color are also 
marked in Shelley's verse. The student of his hues cannot fail 
to notice his frequent mention of odors and his keen enjoyment of 
them. No other poet here considered comes anywhere near 
Shelley in the number of his references to the sense of smell. 
,Cowper indeed possesses an enjoyment of odors, but he does not 
mention them with frequency. Shelley found the odors of musk- 
rose and jasmine "soul-dissolving." Blooming myrtle and 
lemon flowers scattered for him a "sense-dissolving fragrance." 
When the warm wind shook the fresh green leaves of the sweet 
briar, 

there were odours then to make 

The very breath we did respire 

A liquid element, whereon 

Our spirits, like delighted things 

That walk the air on subtle wings, 

Floated and mingled far away 

' Mid the warm winds of the sunny day. 

— Rosalind, 961-7. 
Violets and jonquils 

dart their arrowy odour through the brain 
Till you might faint with that delicious pain. 

— Epips., 451-2. 
Sometimes, as if language failed him for direct description of 
odors, he tries to define them in terms of another sense : 



76 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

flowers of gentle breath, 
Like incarnations of the stars, when splendour 
Is changed to fragrance. 

— Adonais, XX. 

In that star's smile, whose light is like the scent 
Of a jonquil when evening breezes fan it. 

— Triumph, 419-20. 
And soon her strain 
The nightingale began, .... 

Jf; * ^ * * * :(; 

And now to the hushed ear it floats 
Like field smells known in infancy. 

— RosaHnd, 1 104-10. 

The last citation affords an interesting point of comparison 
between Shelley and one or two other English poets. Cowper, 
describing himself as a very little child, mentions especially the fact 
that he wore a " scarlet mantle" [Mother's Ftcture, 51). Color 
evidently made a keen impression on his baby-mind. Coleridge 
also, in his So/met to the River Otter, refers to the " sweet scenes 
of childhood" as recurring to him always with a picture of the 
river's tints, the "marge with willows gray," and the bedded sand 
that gleamed with "various dyes." Wordsworth, too, recalls a 
river, but for its sound that "blended with his nurse's song" 
{Fret., I, 271). But it would seem that Shelley, in the passage 
last quoted from him, connects his early recollections with the 
sense of smell, that sense which, though dull in comparison with 
some others, has yet the strongest associative memory. 

Shelley's sense of sound is keen also, developed to the high- 
est degree and treated with the same luxuriance of imaginative 
enjoyment that everywhere characterizes his thought. But I 
speak particularly of his susceptibility to odors as being a marked 
idiosyncracy of his verse, an idiosyncracy found in no other poet 
here studied. 

From all the data here given, we draw conclusions as to Shel- 
ley's color agreeing with the general truths sketched by Professor 
Dowden in the quotation that begins this chapter, and by Mr. 
Masson {loc. cit., p. 140), when he speaks of the remoteness of 



SHELLEY'S USE OF COLOR 77 

Shelley's thought from terrestrial conditions. We can even see 
the tendencies of Shelley's color-work reflected in the panorama 
of his brilliant, restless, sensitive life. His intense craving for 
liberty and freedom — can we not parallel this with the spaces 
of the heavens, the depths of interstellar air, in which Shelley's 
mind loved to expand its buoyant wings ? Can we not liken the 
beauty and the ideality of his painting to the high-thoughted 
impulses which guided his headlong flight towards what he 
believed was truth, believed was sublimity ? And surely the 
evanescent glory of his poetry finds its counterpart in the brief 
bright life which shone out for a few unparalleled years and then 
went suddenly down into darkness, leaving its line of light 
traveling toward the earth, to reach it only long after the star 
was quenched. 



CHAPTER X. 



KEATS S USE OF COLOR. 



Text used : Works, Vols. I and II. Forman edition. 4 vols. Reeves & 
Turner, 1883. 

Number of lines, 13,991. 

For vocabulary see pp. iio-ii. 

By literary critics the wealth of color in the verse of Keats 
has long been acknowledged. And even the casual reader of 
his poetry has been strongly attracted by the richness and delicacy 
of such pictures as that of the chamber of " St. Agnes' charmed 
maid": 

A casement high and triple-arch'd there was, 
All garlanded with carven imageries 
Of fruits and flowers, and bunches of knot-grass, 
And diamonded with panes of quaint device. 
Innumerable of stains and splendid dyes, 
As are the tiger-moth's deep-damask'd wings ; 
And in their midst, 'mong thousand heraldries, 
And twilight saints, and dim emblazonings, 
A shielded scutcheon blush'd with blood of queens and kings. 

Full on this casement shone the wintry moon, 
And threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast. 
As down she knelt for heaven's grace and boon ; 
Rose-bloom fell on her hands, together prest, 
And on her silver cross soft amethyst. 
And on her hair a glory, like a saint : 
She seemed a splendid angel, newly drest, 
Save wings, for heaven : — Porphyro grew faint : 
She knelt, so pure a thing, so free from mortal taint. 

— The Eve of St. Agnes, XXIV-XXV. 

Here we have the delicacy of Shelley united with Spenser's 
wealth of suggestion : not only has the poet put in loving touches 
78 



KEATS' S USE OF COLOR 79 

of actual color, rare and beautiful — "rose-bloom," "soft ame- 
thyst" falling over "silver," "warm gules," "deep-damask" — but 
he has accompanied these by a richness and splendor of sugges- 
tion that stimulate to the full the aesthetic sense, and he has 
infused into them a throbbing life. 

The Eve of St. Agnes was one of the later works of the 
young poet who first tried his pen in imitating the stanzas of 
Spenser. Keats's career was short and intense, for death claimed 
him when he was less than twenty-six years of age ; but in the 
brief term of his literary productiveness he passed through many 
phases of poetic experience, phases whose extremes are to some 
extent recorded in the colors which he used and the manner in 
which he used them. 

His poetry, as a whole, is flooded with light and color, though 
the distribution of these varies greatly. Sometimes he loses .him- 
self in a maze of luxuriant imagery, his youthful, effervescent 
emotion delighting in displays of Asiatic brilliancy : we are sur- 
feited with dazzle and gorgeous hues. The dream palaces of 
Endymion are cases in point. But at other times he displays a 
remarkable power of withholding color altogether from a poem, 
as in La Belle Dame Sans Merci, or of so controlling and har- 
monizing his tints that they are introduced into the picture 
only where they contribute to high aesthetic delight; for example, 
in The Eve of St. Agnes, and in the St. Mark fragments that so 
deeply impressed Rossetti and his pre-Raphaelite brethren, the 
hues are abundant and vivid, but always under the control of a 
disciplined imagination and a perfect artistic taste. 

This variety in modes of color-treatment seems to arise from 
two sets of forces, the one connected with Keats's maturing 
tastes and powers of mind, and with the partial calming of his 
youthful emotions, the other growing out of his extraordinary 
instinct for keeping his poetic style in harmony with his theme. 

To realize the change which took place in him between 1812 
and 1820 we may compare his first poem. Stanzas in Imitation of 
Spenser, and his last sonnet. Bright Star! Would I were Steadfast 
as Thou art. In the thirty-six lines of the former there are, 
fourteen direct color-terms — "verdant," "amber," "silvering," 



8o COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

" golden," "ruby," "snow," "jetty," "ebony," "emerald," "silver," 
"white," " cserulean," "verdure," and "ruddy," several of which 
are quite as full of sheen as of hue. There are also seven phrases 
more or less clearly hinting color: "mossy beds," "beds of 
simple flowers," " reflected woven bowers," " plumage bright," 
" brilliant dye," " the flowery side " of a stream, "all the buds in 
Flora's diadem." If now we add to these the terms that express 
a shine and sheen — "flame," "silken," "sparkled," "sheen," 
"glossy," "bright," "glow" — we have some thirty light and 
color appeals to the eye in thirty-six lines. The effect is one 
of unpruned richness and glow. The hues are not only varied 
and vivid, but enameled. 

Now contrast with this Keats's last tender and beautiful 
sonnet. The warmth of color seen in his earliest verse has here 
given place to a tender twilight glory. He puts into his picture 
now only the brightness of the steadfast star, the far-off shine of 
priestlike waters, and the gleam of a " new, soft-fallen mask 
of snow." 

A somewhat similar result is obtained by comparing the long 
poems that stand, broadly speaking, for the two phases of his 
work, the Endymion and the Hyperion. The former has a com- 
plete range of colors,' and an incalculable amount of sunlight 
and moonlight splendors, spangle and diamond light, massed 
with luxuriant and emotional effect. The latter has few bright 
colors,^ and these are nowhere massed. Its emphasis is put 
upon Whites, particularly Whites kindled with shining light. See, 
for example, the description of the aged Saturn : 

And in each face he saw a gleam of light, 
But splendider in Saturn's, whose hoar locks 
Shone like the bubbling foam about a keel 
When the prow sweeps into a midnight cove. 

Hyperion, II, 352-5. 
Again, if we compare the bright hues on Keats's early palette 
with those found oftenest on his later, still another difference 

'Reds 24, Yellows 39, Blues 28, Greens 38, Purples 4, Browns 4, Whites 
81, Grays 3, Blacks 20. 

2Reds 9, Yellows 8, Greens 5, Brown i, Whites 26, Grab's 3, Blacks 8. 



KEATS' S USE OF COLOR 8 1 

between his two manners as a colorist will come to light. Seven- 
tenths of all his Yellows and more than half of his Reds belong 
to that period of "yeasting youth" {Otho, III, ii, 178) when he 
wrote the Poems 0/1817 and Endymion; but both his Greens and 
his Blues strike an about even balance in the two periods, in spite 
of the latter's absence from Hyperion. We may therefore conclude 
that while the warm, luminous colors attracted Keats in his youth, 
the calmer colors yielded him a more steady and permanent 
satisfaction. The boy Keats must have been like the youthful 
Carlyle, a bit of whose biography comes to us through the 
mouth of Teufelsdrockh : 

On fine summer evenings I was wont to carry forth my supper 
(bread crumb boiled in milk) and eat it out of doors. On the coping 
of the Orchard wall .... my porringer was placed ; there, many a 
sunset, have I, looking on the distant western Mountains, consumed, 
not without relish, my evening meal. Those hues of gold and azure, 
that hush of World's expectation as Day died, were still a Hebrew 
Speech to me ; nevertheless I was looking at the fair, illuminated 
Letters, and had an eye to their gilding. {Sartor Resarius, II, chap. 2.) 

Keats, too, had "an eye for the gilding," in common with 
youthful poets in general, and in the Endymion he applied this 
gilding to a remarkable degree. 

These, then, are the tendencies established by the first set 
of forces which I mentioned, the forces connected with his 
gradually maturing tastes and powers : a lessening emphasis 
upon warm, vivid hues, a strengthening love for cool, calm hues, 
and withal a steady, persistent affection for bright light, 
especially — as was fitting in our "moon-poet" — for silvery 
moonlight effects. 

The second set of forces that tend to influence his choice of 
colors in particular poems arises, as I have said, from the power 
which he had of putting himself instinctively into sympathy with 
his theme. He could sketch in what Sidney Colvin calls " his 
own rich and decorated English way" [loc. cit., p. 153), laying 
in his colors with artless lavishness, as in Calidore and / stood 
tiptoe; he could portray in appropriate heraldic hues such a 
unique pre-Raphaelite figure as that of Bertha in The Eve of St. 



82 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

Mark; or he could use the alphabet of classic color in telling 
us the story of the early gods, as in Hyperion. It is here, in the 
Hyperion, that his instinctive adaptation to the Greek spirit 
comes out most strongly. It is found also in To Autumn and 
0)1 a Grecian Urn. In these poems there is a striking likeness 
between his range of color-terms and that pointed out by Mr. 
Gladstone as found in Homer i^loc. cit., pp. 382-8). Here 
are no Blues and Violets; white predominates, yellow and red 
are used occasionally, green appears, but receives very slight 
notice. 

Reference to Tables III and V will show that by the majority 
of the poets there represented Whites are used oftener than any 
other line of hues. Keats, then, is by no means peculiar in having 
Whites at the head of his list ; and yet one who studies his use 
of these feels that they were particularly attractive to him 
and depicted by him with loving relish. The reason for this 
seems to me to lie in the intensity of his sensuous endowment. 
His was a soul " all passion struck " {Faery, II, 9). He possessed 
senses so exquisitely refined that their gratification gave him 
both ecstatic pleasure and ecstatic pain. His nerves were all 
a-tingle to the delights of the world, and he describes for us 
such a range of sense- enjoyments as would be hard to parallel. 
In significant accord, therefore, with the fullness of his sensuous 
nature, is his passionate enjoyment of white light, the radiance 
of the uncolored beam of sunlight, strongest among visual 
stimulants. 

The number of words expressing dazzle and sheen is very 
large in Keats's verse : " bright," " shining," " gleaming," " glis- 
tening," " glossy," " lustrous," "lucid," "luminous," "crystal," 
"spangly," "phosphor," "diamond," etc., etc. When these 
cannot meet his need, he intensifies them in the most superlative 
way: " passionately bright " [End., I, 594), "bright enough to 
drive me mad" {End., I, 613). He seems to connect with them, 
not only excessive visual stimulation, but an emotional rapture as 
well, as when once he speaks of 

Touching with dazzled lips her starlight hand. 

— E7id., IV, 419. 



KEATS' S USE OF COLOR 83 

Next to glow and luster in the list of Keats's pleasures of sight 
come Whites, which are frequently luminous. He likes them 
alone, and he also makes especially felicitous combinations of 
his Whites with other delicate hues, as in the lines — 

Here are sweet peas, on tiptoe for a flight, 
With wings of gentle flush o'er delicate white 

{^I stood tiptoe, 57-8), 

or in lines 8-10 and 1 13-15 of the poem just cited, where 
he introduces a combination peculiarly pleasing to him — white 
clouds and blue sky. Such a scene he speaks of in a letter to 
Jane Reynolds, 181 7, as " fulfilling " to him. 

Keats indulges freely in the ordinary Whites of ballad figure- 
painting : the women, real or ideal, whom he worships have 
" ivory " wrist, and neck, and breast, " milk-white " shoulders, 
" lily " hands, " marble " arms. But such trite poetizing he can 
far transcend, as when, with loving admiration and artistic touch, 
he clothes Madeline 

In blanched linen smooth and lavendered 

{St. Agnes, XXX) ; 
or pictures Apollo's "white melodious throat" [Hyp., Ill, 81) ; 
or dreams how 

Young buds sleep in the root's white core 

{Faery, 1,4); 
or causes Endymion to name among the delights with which he 
will make happy his Indian Princess, 

I will entice this crystal rill to trace 

Love's silver name upon the meadow's face. 

— End., IV, 699. 
Gray is used very little by Keats ; it has a predominant asso- 
ciation with old age, and enters into none of his creative pictures, 
unless we may count the line in his sonnet Blue, 

The bosomer of clouds, grey, gold, and dun. 
Black also is sparingly employed in Keats's verse, and when 
it does appear it is usually in passages where the color-idea is 
subordinate to some more important idea, or where the dark 
shade is mentioned merely as a foil for some lighter one. 



84 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

Reds he seemed to prize and use chiefly for their association 
with the English flowers and fruits that he loved, with the splen- 
dors of dawn or of sunset, and with the glow of health or the 
play of emotion in the human countenance. For one red hue he 
cherished great repugnance — for the pungent scarlet. Perhaps 
the association with the uniform of the English soldier destroyed 
any cesthetic pleasure that he might otherwise have had for the 
hue. It is seldom, however, a favorite with poets. Like its 
crude sister, orange, it suffers neglect at their hands. When 
Keats lay stretched on the grass with a field of drooping oats on 
the one side, and on the other 

Ocean's blue mantle streaked with purple and green, 
he was annoyed by the upstart poppies. 

So pert and useless that they bring to mind 
The scarlet coats that pester humankind. 

— Epistle to my Brother George, i2q ff. 

When the serpent Lamia underwent her torture of transforma- 
tion. 

She writhed about, convulsed with scarlet pain 

[Lamia, I, 154), 
and once Endymion, in an oppressive dream, saw with horror 
that 

the vermeil rose had blown 
In frightful scarlet. — End., I, 696. 

Avoiding, then, the more intense red, and especially that 
admixed with orange, Keats prefers the softer red, modified by 
an admixture of white. For his most beautiful touches of rich 
color he chooses "bloom," "flush," "blush," and "rose," as in 
the following lines : 

The creeper, mellowing with an autumn blush. 

— Eitd., II, 416. 
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day 
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue. 

— Atitumn, 25. 
Smooth semilucent mist 
Diversely tinged with rose and amethyst. 

—End., IV, 386. 



KEATS 'S USE OF COLOR 85 

At five the golden light began to spring 
With fiery shudder through the bloomed east. 

—Cap and Bells, LXXX. 

The last citation reminds one of Shelley, who loved to paint 
the tints that quiver upon 

The vaporous spray 
Which the sun clothes in hues of Iris light. 

— Orpheus, 80. 

But the imagination of Keats is, on the whole, less ethereal 
than that of Shelley. His objects are more concrete and grasp- 
able, and his coloring is more opaque. This may be seen in his 
Yellows, where the gold — his favorite yellow — is less trans- 
lucent than Shelley's translucent gold. They are more solid 
and metallic, reminding one of the gold grounds of Fra Angelico. 

In Table III we see that in the amount of his yellow Keats 
is surpassed by Spenser only. His high percentage here is due 
to his " gold," which constitutes four-fifths of all his yellow. 
Next to this he likes best " amber," which has brilliancy as used 
in his verse, and for this reason ranks next to the merry-shining 
"gold." 

Another noticeable thing in Keats's percentages, as shown in 
Table III, is the equal amounts of red, of yellow, and of green. 
As I have before said, the largest part of his Yellows occur in 
the Poems of 1817 and Endymion. But with his Greens the case 
is different. In these he seems to take increasing pleasure as 
time goes on. The highest color-pleasure of his last years 
came from the hues of the great physical wholes — green fields, 
blue sea and sky. These hues rested and soothed him, con- 
tributing a tranquillizing calm to his passionate emotional nature. 
Even his early poems furnish lines to which one may point as 
confirmation of this [e. g., Calidore, i-io). And if in his later 
work the calming effect of the green is less directly expressed, 
we still feel the subtle joy which the poet takes in its cool restful- 
ness, in poems like To a Nightingale. 

Blue is not numerically predominant in Keats's verse, but no 
one who reads his sonnet answering the one which J. H. Reynolds 
had written in praise of dark eyes, as 



86 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

dearer far 
Than those which mock the hyacinthine bell, 

can dotibt that blue gave Keats aesthetic satisfaction, or that it 
had not for him distinct association with the things most dear to 
him — the expanse of heaven, "bosomer of clouds," the sweet 
English flowers, and the human eyes whose blue he felt "run 
liquid" through his soul {End., II, 543). 

Throughout his life Keats was a worshiper of beauty. At 
first the ideal good seems to have assumed for him a form more 
or less material. At the time when he wrote 

A thing of beauty is a joy forever {End., I, i), 

his eager nature found satisfaction in luxuriant imagery of cloy- 
ing sweetness, or in the excessive gratification of personal sensa- 
tion ; but his worship was too sincere, his sympathies were too 
high, for him long to follow the goddess afar off. His insight 
became more spiritual, his expression less decorative and more 
noble, as he approached the period when he gave utterance to 
the exquisite ode On a Grecian Urn. There he proclaims. 

Beauty is truth, truth beauty ; 

and in a letter of 181 7 : 

I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the heart's affections 
and the truth of imagination. What the imagination seizes as beauty 
must be truth, whether it existed before or not ; for I have the same 
idea of all the passions as of love ; they are all, in their sublime, crea-, 
tive of essential beauty. (Letter to Benj. Bailey, November 22, 1817.) 

And again he wrote : 

You speak of Lord Byron and me. There is this great difference 
between us : he describes what he sees, I describe what I imagine. (To 
George Keats, July 26, 18 18.) 

These utterances are of large significance to the interpreter 
of Keats's poetry. In studying his coloring we should remember 
that the scenes of his poems are laid not so often in the English 
district where he wrote, as in the land of his imagination, where 
the lights and shades, the hues and tints, are not so truly what 
he saw in Nature as what he delighted to see. To test Keats's 



r 



K EATS' S USE OF COLOR 87 

coloring by his own criterion, the reader must ask, not "Is this 
faithful to reality?", but "Does this present to the quickened 
imagination a picture of 'essential beauty'?" Tried by this 
test, the " rose-bloom " and " amethyst " cast by the moonbeams 
upon fair Madeline will forever remain things of beauty in spite 
of the fact that colors are not so cast at night. And the gorgeous 
array of colors adorning Lamia, that 

Gordian shape of dazzling hue, 
Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue, 
Striped like a zebra, freckled like a pard. 
Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barr'd 

{^Lainia, I, 47), 

though never was there a serpent so clothed, will continue to sur- 
prise many a reader into admiration. 

For exquisite truth in rendering Nature's sounds and colors 
we should go to Wordsworth, or Tennyson, or Browning ; but 
Keats's mission, like Shelley's, was to create. "The points of 
leaves and twigs on which the spider begins work," he once 
wrote, " are few, and she fills the air with a beautiful circuiting. 
Man should be as content with as few points to tip with the fine 
web of his soul and weave a tapestry empyrean — full of symbols 
for his spiritual eye, of space for his wanderings, of distinctness for 
his luxury." (To Reynolds, February 19, 181 8.) The colors in 
which Keats wove his "tapestry empyrean " are stiong and defi- 
nite, whether they dazzle or soothe us. If he seemed to possess 
a dual color-taste — now reveling in the brightest, most luminous 
rays of light, and now turning for "calmness " to the more tran- 
quil Blues and verdure tints — he was in both consistent. His 
passionate nature led him to marshal the intense Reds and Golds 
and dazzling Whites until he was ready to swoon, intoxicated by 
their refulgence ; but when he had taken his draught of sunshine, 
he experienced conscious joy in the contemplation of the softer 
complementaries of these gorgeous hues, and in restful twilight 
gleams. 

His colors were not conventional like those of Pope. If in 
large measure ideal, they were never artificial. They were not 
the evanescent, etherealized hues of Shelley, but had body and a 



88 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

Steady glow. As compared with Wordsworth's colors founded 
upon close observation of Nature and of life, Keats's show 
broader effects and less careful discriminations. In the extent of 
his vocabulary he falls short of the three poets especially distin- 
guished as human colorists — Shakspere, Scott, and Byron ; but 
where their color-averages are respectively 12, 48, and 25 words 
per 1,000 lines, Keats's average rises to 65 words. In wealth 
of color he stands without a peer. 



CONCLUSION. 

The general conclusions which we may draw from the fore- 
going facts and from different classifications of our figures may 
be stated under three heads : I, Color-Vocabulary ; II, Color 
Scale ; III, Color-Distribution. The vocabulary lists, tables, and 
charts that are concerned with these divisions of our subject are 
grouped as follows : 

I. COLOR-VOCABULARY. 

PAGE 

Classified vocabularies of the seventeen poets here studied, 

arranged chronologically, - - - - - - 103 

A comparative vocabulary of Elizabethan color and Romantic 

color, - - - - - - - - - III 

Table I, giving a numerical summary of the number of vari- 
ants used by different poets, - - - - - - 114 

II. COLOR-SCALE. 

Table II, showing the actual number of times each poet uses 
each color-group, the number of lines catalogued for each, 
and the color-average for each per 1,000 lines, - - 115 

Table III, showing the percentage of color falling in each color- 
group (based on the figures of II), and the relative propor- 
tions of definite and indefinite hues used by each poet, - 115 

Table IV, listing for each poet the ten color-words oftenest used, 1 16 

Table V, showing each poet's color-scale, and that of the Roman- 
ticists as a body, according to color-groups, - - 116 

III. COLOR-DISTRIBUTION. 

Table VI, showing the actual number of times each poet applies 

color to the various fields of interest, A-Z (p. 113), - 117 

Table VII, showing the percentage of color falling in each field 

(based on the figures of VI), - 117 

Table VIII, showing, for the Romanticists as a body, the way in 
which each of the nine color-groups is distributed through 
the fields A-Z. ....... 118 



go COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

PAGE 

Table IX, showing the relative amounts of the different colors 

in an}^ one of the fields A-Z - - - - - - ii8 

Chart A, showing the fluctuations of the color-vocabulary 

applied to Man by the poets from the fourteenth to the 

nineteenth centuries. 
Chart B, showing the growth of the color-vocabulary applied to 

Nature. 

I. POETIC COLOR-VOCABULARY. 

From Table I and the vocabulary lists given on pp. 1-03-12, it 
will at once appear that there have been two great periods of 
abundant color-vocabulary in English poetry, from the time of 
Chaucer to that of Keats — the Elizabethan and the Romantic. 
A glance at Charts A and B will show the radical difference in 
application of the two bodies of color. The individual and 
comparative vocabularies now under consideration indicate other 
points of distinction between the two ages. 

The Elizabethan vocabulary as used by Shakspere and 
Spenser was strong in Reds, Whites, and Blacks ; /. <?., in human 
coloring (Charts A and B show the strongly human applica- 
tion of color in this period). Shakspere's color-vocabulary is 
the largest of any here studied, Byron's coming next. While 
Byron's, however, is composed of the i-eal colors, and owes its 
extent possibly to his observance of many nations, Shakspere's 
abundance of color-terms is due to his exuberant dramatic fancy. 
He employs such words as " Cain-colored," " French-crown- 
colored," "orange-tawny," "freestone-colored," "paly ashes," 
"cold-pale," "maid-pale," etc. 

The differentiations of color, /. e., the creation or perception 
of subvarieties of the chief color, such as "crimson-red," "rose- 
red," "blood-red," as varieties of red, are in the Elizabethans 
confined largely to the color-groups which I have already men- 
tioned as the fullest — Reds, Whites, and Blacks; this fact 
indicates the accuracy and preference with which their object of 
interest — Man — was studied by them.' 

'^ That these two peculiarities, abundant use of color and differentiation in 
its shades as used, are not necessarily co-existent, may be seen by a glance at 



CONCLUSION— POETIC COLOR-VOCABULARY 91 

The Elizabethan vocabulary, then, was distinctly a human 
one. If we drop from Shakspere's vocabulary those words used 
exclusively of Nature, we should still have left 104 of his 114 
terms, while in Wordsworth's case we should, after a similar sub- 
traction, have remaining only 57 of his 93 words 

The Romantic vocabulary, on the other hand, though keep- 
ing Reds and Whites at the head numerically, was also much 
developed in the Greens, Blues, Purples, and Browns. The 
explanation of this retention of red and white is seen by a glance 
at Charts A and B. The Elizabethan period had but one center 
of interest — Man; the Romantic period, while lifting Nature 
and Nature-study into prominence, did not avert its eyes from 
humanity ; it thus has two centers of interest and two co-existent 
and nearly equal fields of color-treatment. As exhibited on 
pp. iii-i2,the vocabularies of Spenser and Shakspere together 
contain 139 color-terms. Of these Elizabethan terms the Roman- 
ticists retain 96, and add to these 135, making a total of 231 
terms. Of the 43 terms dropped from the earlier color-vocabu- 
lary 10 may be counted as now obsolete — e. g., " watchet," 
"blunket," "gilt" (= red), "auburn" (= yellow), " welkin," 
"gaudy-green;" another ten are dramatic coinings by Shaks- 
pere, struck out for use at the moment — ^- g-, "cheek-roses," 
"linen-faced," "tallow-faced," "cold-pale," " nighted," etc.; still 
others are intensive compounds whose separate words are com- 
mon poetic property, but whose particular combinations are not 
found in the work of the Romanticists — e. g., "scarlet-red," 
"vermeil-red," "raven-black," "pale-white," "orange-tawny." 
Of these 43 terms 37 were confined in their application to Man 
and his clothing, showing again the strong bias of Spenser and 
Shakspere toward human coloring. 

If now we look at the additions made to the vocabulary by the 
Romantic poets, it will appear that among them Nature-hues 
predominate : the Browns, Greens, and Blues have been doubled ; 
the Purples raised from i to 13. The additions are made in 
differentiations of staple hues, rather than in the introduction of 

Scott's Browns, for example : although he employs only 5 per cent, of brown 
he recognizes six varieties in its tone. 



92 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

new root-words, though there are some additions of the latter 
class, e. g., "pink," "pomegranate," "flesh-colored," "chrysolite," 
"glaucous," "amethyst," "grain," "lilac," "violet," "bronze," 
"cinereous." The differentiated shades and tints added by the 
later school are very numerous. It is a curious fact that the 
Elizabethan vocabularies here cited contain only one shade in 
the proper sense of that word (/. e., the deepening or darkening 
of a primary hue). This one shade is Shakspere's "deep-green 
emerald." The only Elizabethan tints are "pallid-green," 
"pallid-blue," and "hoary-gray." 

Beside this meager list place the Romanticists' shades and tints : 
" dark-red," "deep-red," "dull-red," "dusky-red," "dark-blue," 
"dead-blue," "deep-blue," "gloomy-blue," "sable-blue," "black- 
blue," " dark-green," " deep-green," " dull-green," " dusky-green," 
"gloomy-green," "sepulchral-green," "dark-brown," "deep- 
brown," "dark-purple," "deepest-purple," "pale-blue," " lurid- 
blue," "livid-blue," "light-brown," "light-green," "pale-gray," 
"silver-gray," "paly-red," "paly-rose." We have in the two 
lists a marked difference of observation, of usage, or of both. 

Another contrast we may draw between the compound hues 
of the Elizabethans and those of the Romanticists. The former 
are either obvious, a part of the common ballad stock of descrip- 
tive adjectives — "raven-black," "rose-red," "fiery-red," "milk- 
white," "snow-white," etc. — or such as are fanciful and dramatic 
— "Cain-colored," "linen-faced," "cheek-roses." Again, if 
Spenser or Shakspere combines two color-words into a single 
adjective, the two are usually synonyms, and the compound is 
intensive rather than discriminating — "crimson-red," "scarlet- 
red," "sanguine-red," "pale-white." 

The characteristic compounds made by the Romantic School, 
on the other hand, combine two different hues in such a way that 
one modifies the other. There are coined new color-terms that, 
instead of being intensive or dramatic, are discriminative and 
aesthetic; such terms as "rubious-argent," "pinky-silver," 
" swarthy-red," " purple-hectic," " dun-red," " purple-gold," 
"ruddy-brown," "yellow-green," "purple-amethyst," "autumnal- 
leaf-like-red," " gold green," "tawny-green," "deep-red-gold," 



CONCLUSION— POETIC COLOR- VOCABULAR V 93 

and "rose-ensanguined-ivory." These new compound tones 
are about equally divided in application between Man and 
Nature, with a slight leaning to the latter; so that once more we 
see the double and well-rounded color-interest of the Romantic 
School, an interest which shows itself this time in conjunction 
with an increasingly aesthetic handling of color. 

To recapitulate, the Elizabethan color-vocabulary contains 
nearly all the root-words for color that are found in English poetry 
up to the beginning of the present century, and with the excep- 
tion of a few terms now obsolete, and a few individual coinings 
of Shakspere's fancy, it has passed almost undiminished into 
modern verse. Its strength lies in terms descriptive of Man's 
face, hair, and dress. The Romantic color-vocabulary, while 
retaining the majority of the terms of Spenser and Shakspere, 
adds to these a few new terms, chiefly for delicate and translucent 
hues — "pomegranate," "amethyst," " violet," "lilac," "chryso- 
lite," etc. — and then proceeds to mix the old staple hues upon 
its palette until it has a numerous body of tints, shades, and com- 
pound tones, suited to describe aesthetically, not only Man, but 
Nature, and Nature in both steady and evanescent aspects. 

Chart A presents to the eye the variety of hues which different 
poets have noted in eyes, hair, and skin. Shakspere here out- 
strips both predecessors and successors. He has 23 adjectives 
and compounds to express the whiteness or pallor of the skin, 
9 for its tones of red and pink, 18 for its Yellows and dark hues. 
He employs, first, the staple colors and their commoner com- 
pounds, such as are found in the ballads. Then he does not 
hesitate, in addition to these, to coin new words ; and some 
of them are more than mere hues — they are dramatic phrases 
carrying along with the color-touch a train of deeper suggestion, 
indicating character. Such, for example, are " linen-faced," 
"whey-faced," "maid-pale." One feels throughout, in the study 
of Shakspere, that he was a master in the field of human coloring, 
and that in characterizing abstract qualities he could wield the 
brush with a careless mastery to be observed almost nowhere 
outside his pages.' His Nature-hues, however, though true and 

' Note his percentage in Class Z, Table VII. 



h 



94 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

beautiful, are limited, as was but natural in lyric and dramatic 
work whose interest was preponderatingly human. 

Spenser, however, had a subject and a method which invited 
color. It is therefore surprising to find that his color-vocabulary 
is smaller than Shakspere's, and that in using it he reaches an 
average of only 15 words per 1,000 lines, less than one-fourth 
that of Gray and Keats. And yet, because of his generous color- 
hinting," and his pervading glooms and gleams, he suggests to us 
Keats, richest of colorists. 

After Shakspere's time interest in color wanes. Milton, to be 
sure, has a coloring pure and dignified, yet it is scanty. Pope, 
who represents the eighteenth century with a color-vocabulary 
less copious than Chaucer's, though he uses his terms more 
frequently than the preceding poets of our tables do, uses them 
with a connotation which in the majority of instances degrades 
or minimizes their color-value. With him, after his earliest years 
of production, hues become the tools of satire and sarcasm. 

Such minor writers of the eighteenth century as John Phillips, 
Richard Savage, John Dyer, and John Scott' really observed the 
hues of Nature, and noticed in their verse tints and shades less 
obvious than the "green" forest, "blue" sky, and "white" moon 
with which ballad writers are for the most part content. They thus 
prepared the way for Thomson, who with direct intent devoted 
himself in The Seasons to the study of the external world. He 
had not a magic touch, but he gave himself with love to the 
observation of a genuine Nature, and used in depicting it a color- 
vocabulary twice as large as that employed by Shakspere in the 
same field. His color-vocabulary as a whole is the largest 
between those of Shakspere and the Romanticists. In its 
Browns and Greens it shows the differentiations characteristic of 
the latter school. Thomson also reflects in his verse some of the 
contemporary scientific study of chromatics, for he gives in order 
the rainbow hues, as classified by the physicists, and again cata- 
logues the same in his lines on the spectrum in To Newton. 

Gray's vocabulary is small, though lavishly used in his 1,300 
lines of verse. Goldsmith is strikingly meager as a colorist, 

' Reynolds, loc. cit.. Index, " Color." 



CONCLUSION— POETIC COLOR-SCALE 95 

with his fifteen words used in all only twenty-six times. Cowper, 
too, has a small color-average, though a vocabulary about like 
that of Spenser and Milton. 

It is with Scott, who has a vocabulary surpassed only by 
Shakspere's and Byron's, full in almost every group of hues, and 
well-balanced between Man and Nature, that the second great 
color-wave of English poetry — the wave whose rise we feel in 
Thomson — approaches its crest. Upon this wave we are carried 
to the high tide of the great Romantic color-movement. 

II. POETIC COLOR-SCALE. 

The ratio in which different hues appeal to the human eye, 
the relative amount of attention which the poet gives them in 
his verse — these are questions of psychological and aesthetic 
interest, even though physiologists fail -to find in such statistics 
any definite index to the extent and accuracy of man's vision. 

The accompanying tables are not so extensive that they may 
be considered determinative and final in [their judgment as to 
the color-scale of English poetry, yet it may be claimed for 
them that they offer a definite contribution toward such a judg- 
ment. Representing as they do thirteen of England's leading 
poets, poets typical of all the centuries from the fourteenth to 
the present time, and of all the great literary movements of 
England ; representing, too, every- class of poetic production, 
from the purely didactic to the purely descriptive, or from the 
most highly artistic drama to the most spontaneous and personal 
" lyrical cry " — they should, in their total of nearly half a million 
lines of verse, furnish us with an approximately truthful poetic 
color-scale. 

Table II shows the actual number of tixnes which each poet 
uses his Reds, his Yellows, his Greens, etc., with the total number 
of times color occurs in his verse, the total number of lines 
catalogued for each poet, and his average number of color- 
words per I, GOO lines. 

Table III is based upon II, but furnishes a readier means of 
comparing the different poets, because its figures are expressed 
as percentages. Appended to these percentages, according to 



96 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

the nine color-groups, is a second set of percentages showing the 
relative proportion of definite and indefinite^ hues in each 
poet's verse. 

In Tables IV and V we may see at a glance the color-prefer- 
ences of any one poet, so far as these are indicated by the 
frequency with which he uses his different hues. Numerically 
judged, Whites usually have the preference, forming from one- 
fourth to one-third of the poet's total color-effects. In Milton 
they are nearly equaled by Greens and Blacks, and in Thomson 
by Reds. In Wordworth's scale they are slightly subordinate 
to Greens. In Cowper's list alone do they fall to the third place. 
Purples and Browns divide the honor of standing lowest. 

The average or normal poetic scale, as deduced from the 
totals of Table II, is White, Red, Black, Green, Yellow, Blue, 
Gray, Purple, Brown. If the average of the Romantic poets' 
color-scales be struck, it will differ from the above only by 
placing Blue above Yellow (Table V). 

Of the poets, taken individually, Coleridge comes nearest to 
the normal scale. Scott elevates Gray and depresses Yellow; 
Wordsworth brings Green to the foremost place and considerably 
lowers Black ; Byron puts Black above Red, and Blue above 
Green ; Shelley so far neglects Red that it drops to the sixth 
place ; Keats's chief eccentricity is the neglect of Black. 

In general, those poets who concern themselves pronouncedly 
with depicting their fellow-men either in the drama, the tale, or 
the satire (Shakspere, Pope, Scott, Byron) secure 65 per cent, to 
75 per cent, of their color-effects with Neutrals and Reds, while 
those who combine with the interest in Man a strong interest in 
a real or an imagined Nature (Milton, Thomson, Wordsworth, 
Shelley) choose for about 50 per cent, of their color-effects 
Greens, Blues, Purples, and Browns. 

The right-hand column in Table II shows emphatically how 
greatly the use of color increased in English verse between 
the sixteenth century and the end of the eighteenth. The 
Romanticists show a uniformly high average. Even Wordsworth, 

' Hues counted as indefinite are : pale, pallid, wan, dark, dusky, lurid, flush, 
blush, etc. 



CONCLUSION— POETIC COLOR-DISTRIBUTION 97 

the least lavish among them, nearly doubles the color of 
Shakspere. 

The theme, of course, determines in part the character and 
amount of color in a poem, narrative or descriptive verse being 
more lavishly colored than dramatic or didactic. Shakspere's 
low average is to some extent explained by the fact that the 
bulk of his work is dramatic, and the wealth of color-use by 
Scott and Keats is doubtless in part accounted for by the 
descriptive and narrative character of their verse. But one 
must not forget that much of the verse of Byron and Shelley is 
in dramatic form, nor that much of that of Coleridge and 
Wordsworth is speculative and philosophic; yet, in spite of these 
facts, each of these poets has a high color-average. 

When all is said, we must concede to the Romanticists not only 
a full and much-differentiated vocabulary, as before proven, but 
a uniformly lavish and well-balanced use of that vocabulary. 

III. POETIC COLOR-DISTRIBUTION. 

In the third set of tables colors are classified according to 
their distribution in the fields which I have called A-Z (p. 113). 
The color-distribution of individual poets is first shown : Table 
VI gives their actual number of uses in each field ; Table VII 
reduces these to percentages. The accompanying Charts A and 
B list the various hues seen by the different poets in certain 
special fields of interest. 

The figures of Table VII show at a glance the strongest 
color-interests of individual poets, and usually corroborate our 
judgment regarding their chosen fields of interest as revealed in 
their work as a whole. The most pronounced preferences 
shown here are in Shakspere's A 52 ; Thomson's G 21, H 27, I 10 ; 
Wordsworth's H 31; and Shelley's G 28 ; all of which harmonize 
perfectly with Shakspere's preference, as a dramatist, for the 
study of Man, with the new interest in the varied aspects of 
Nature shown by Thomson, with Wordsworth's love of fields and 
hills, and with Shelley's ardor for what Watson terms : 
the pavilioned firmament o'erdoming all. 

— Shelley' s Centenary. 



98 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

In this Table the poets before Milton show a pre-eminent 
interest in Man's form, his dress, and the works of his hands, as 
seen in the percentages quoted under A, B, and C respectively. 
They were familiar with the common aspects of Nature, but con- 
tent to paint them without mtich variation of hue. It would 
seem that the external world appealed to them very little except 
as a background for human action, its artistic or aesthetic possi- 
bilities not entering into their thought. To Chaucer, for 
instance, fields and woods and leaves were invariably " green," 
as if they caught his eye only in the glad springtime. The dis- 
tance attracted him but little, hues of mountain or horizon never 
receiving mention in his verse, and those of the sky and sea 
playing a very small part there. He was the poet of the near 
and the human. And such, in their different characters, were 
Langland and Gower, Spenser and Shakspere. 

With Milton there is a new distribution of color. Only 32 
per cent, falls under A, B, C, and Z,^ as against Shakspere's 72 
per cent.; while F, G, H, and I receive 60 per cent., as against 
Shakspere's 19 per cent. 

In Thomson the Nature-interest is still more pronounced 
(67 per cent, to F, G, H, and I). He becomes the forerunner of 
the Romanticists. We may, indeed, go further and say that he 
even eclipsed them in the relative proportion of his Nature-color- 
ing ; for he leaves the field of human coloring almost untouched, 
while they show the double interest which links them on the one 
side with Shakspere, on the other with their prophet, Thomson. 
To the colors of dress and manufactu-res he pays the slightest 
possible heed, as may be seen by comparing his B and C with 
the same classes in other poets. 

Cowper shows a pronounced interest in Man, but his indi- 
viduality as a colorist is better exhibited in the more specific and 
smaller fields of Nature-study — not sky, plain, and sea, but ani- 
mals and flowers. The two last-named classes, D and F, are 
relatively stronger in Cowper than in any other poet of our 
tables. In F are included fruits and Specially-noted trees ; 

^ Z may be counted in with the human color, since under it fall human 
qualities and abstractions. 



CONCLUSION— POETIC COLOR-DISTRIBUTION 99 

when we have this fact in mind, Cowper's preference for D and 
F seems but natural in the owner of the pet hare, and the man 
whose memory could reconstruct from the naked shoots of mid- 
winter such a brilliant and fragrant garden as that described in 
The Task, VI, 140-80. 

The strongest individual preferences of the Romanticists, as 
mentioned just above, exhibit fuller attention to all of the Nature- 
fields, and a less partial distribution of color, than do those of 
the representative poets of any earlier schools of English poetry. 
The results of further study of their color in its totality are 
tabulated in the two tables, VIII and IX. 

We see first in VIII the Romantic distribution of each of 
the nine color-groups, and can determine at a glance the fields 
in which it has been most often applied. For example, 28 per 
cent, of the Reds is applied to the human body, 21 per cent, to 
the sky, and smaller proportional shares to the other fields of 
interest. Yellows go chiefly to atmospheric and celestial phe- 
nomena, being connected with the sun and its light. Thirty-nine 
per cent, of the Browns and the Grays are used on the human body, 
the second largest amount in each case going to earth and rocks. 
Class H naturally receives the lion's share of the Greens ; Class 
G takes 38 per cent, of the Blues and 29 per cent, of the Purples. 
Nearly half of the Blacks and the Whites goes to human skin and 
to sky. Taking Classes A-C together to represent human color- 
ing, we see that the colors most used by the portrait-painting poet 
are Reds, Browns, Whites, Grays, and Blacks ; while the land- 
scape painter dips his brush oftenest into Yellows, Greens, Blues, 
and Purples. 

The figures of Table VIII were obtained by adding together 
the total color usages of the six Romanticists, arranged accord- 
ing to the nine color-groups, and reducing the results to per- 
centages. From the same figures, arranged and added this time 
according to the twelve fields of interest, we obtain the percent- 
ages presented in Table IX. The only difference in the color- 
classification between this and other tables is that in this one ten 
color-groups have been included, the tenth being styled Indefinites, 
and having placed under it all such indefinite terms as "pale," 



lOO COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

"pallid," "wan," "lurid," "dark," "dusky," "flush," and 
" blanch." 

In this Table IX we may note, first, that the Indefinites play 
their largest part in Class A, and, secondly, that Whites, Grays, 
and Blacks come next after Indefinites in this class, so that, all 
told, but 25 per cent, of the color used on Man is definite and 
bright. The color-scale for Class B (clothing) is White, Red, 
Black, Blue, Green, Purple, Yellow, Gray, Indefinites, Brown ; 
for Class G (the sky, etc.) it is Blue, Indefinites, equal parts of 
Red, Yellow, and White, Black, Gray; in H (vegetation) Green 
far outstrips other hues, being followed at a distance by Indefi- 
nites, Grays, and Blacks, and Whites, Reds, and Browns ; I (forms 
of water) shows a color-scale in which Whites and Blues lead, 
in about equal amounts, followed in order by Indefinites, Greens, 
Reds, Yellows, and Blacks, Purples, Browns, and Grays. For 
abstractions the commonest color by far is Black, 33 per cent.; 
among bright hues, however. Reds and Blues lead. These enu- 
merations suggest others which may readily be drawn from the 
table itself. 

If now we turn to Charts A and B, we shall find strikingly 
portrayed there the history of poetic color-vocabulary and color- 
distribution in their most salient phases. Here is a chronolog- 
ical presentation of the terms for color applied by poets, from 
the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries, to Man's eyes, his 
hair, and his skin (Chart A); and to sky, vegetation, moun- 
tains, and deep waters (Chart B). 

The first thing evident as one looks at A is the fact that there 
have been two great periods of definite interest in actual, concrete 
human coloring, and that these periods culminate as the sixteenth 
and eighteenth centuries pass into the seventeenth and nine- 
teenth. Between the two the color-tide ebbs, with Goldsmith as an 
exponent of its lowest stage. The poetry of the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries departed from the real, interesting itself in 
the distant, the abstract, the philosophic. It described, not fel- 
low-men, but the generalized species Man; and in such descrip- 
tion the coloring became, not unnaturally, meager and indefinite. 

Let us now turn to Chart B. Here, in the Nature-hues, we 



CONCLUSION— POETIC COLOR-DISTRIBUTION loi 

do not observe, as in A, two well-balanced periods, but a gradu- 
ally increasing accentuation of color and a steady gain in nice 
discriminations, until Langland's single hue "green" has grown 
into the long, varied, nicely discriminated vocabularies of Scott, 
Wordsworth, and Shelley. Thomson forms a little advance wave, 
it is true, after whom the tide ebbs to Goldsmith again, but 
Thomson's work is preparatory and premonitory of the Roman- 
ticists rather than representative of his own time. Construe 
these lists in B as we may, they show that the color-study of 
Nature's varied phases is a growth of modern times, scarcely 
entered upon before the time of Thomson, and developed in 
fullness — during the centuries covered in our tables — by the 
Romanticists alone. 

Now, when we put together Charts A and B, and bear in mind 
the many points already noted as to the difference between the 
Elizabethans and the Romanticists in the use of color, we may make 
one or two still broader generalizations. While the Elizabethans, 
as represented by Shakspere and Spenser, had an extensive vocab- 
ulary, their field of interest is, roughly speaking, limited to Man. 
But the Romanticists, while retaining to. the full this early inter- 
est in Man, added to it an equal or greater interest in Nature, 
with an increase in discrimination in this field exactly parallel 
to the increase in discrimination between Chaucer and Shakspere 
in the earlier field. This dual interest, this subtle observation 
of both Man and Nature, which characterizes the Romantic 
School, is not a mere parallelization of two distinct threads of 
sympathy, the one manifest in one poet or group of poems, 
the second chosen and followed out by others ; it is an inextri- 
cable interweaving, in each poet of the school, of the two strains 
of thought. Man and Nature are conceived, even by Byron, as 
connected, interdependent, and mutually influential ; and on 
this closeness of relationship there depends that dignifying of 
the senses which, with the greater pantheism from which it 
springs, was first developed by Wordsworth, and has been con- 
tinued on the same strong but delicate lines by Browning and 
Tennyson. Color was to Wordsworth but one of the media 
through which, as through all else sensuous, he perceived Eter- 



102 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

nal Truth ; yet he treated it with the same fidelity and sincerity 
which he devoted to the pursuit of his larger aim. By the greater 
of his successors, especially by Tennyson and Browning, color 
has been handled with the same inevitable directness, the same 
wide range of perception, the same delicate accuracy, the same 
dignity of treatment, so marked in the Romanticists ; yet in 
reviewing the use of color in English poetry, so far as it can be 
analyzed and reported, one inevitably selects, as the most inter- 
esting phase ' of its rise to poetic importance, that moment in 
which the equal value and interdependence of ]|the two great 
fields of sympathetic study were first fully recognized, the age of 
Scott and Wordsworth, of Shelley and Keats. 



I. COLOR-VOCABULARY. 

Classified vocabularies of — page 

Langland, -..-----.. 103 

Gower, - - - - - - - - - - -104 

Chaucer, ..---.---. 104 

Spenser, - - - - - - - - - - -104 

Shakspere, ---------- 105 

Milton, ----------- 105 

Pope, - - - - - 106 

Thomson, - - - - - - - - -.- - 106 

Goldsmith, ---------- 107 

Gray, - - - - 107 

Cowper, ------.--. 107 

Scott, ----------- 108 

Coleridge, ---------- 108 

Wordsworth, - - - - - - - - - - 109 

Byron, - - - - - - - - - -- 109 

Shelley, - - - - - - - - - - - no 

Keats, ----------- no 

Comparative vocabularies of Elizabethans and Romanticists, - - in 

Table I: Summary of Variants, - - - - - - - 114 

LANGLAND : VOCABULARY. 

Reds 8 — red 7, ruddy i. 

Yellows 2 — gilt i, taw^ny i. 

Browns 0. 

Greens 6 — green 6. 

Blues i — bio i. 

Purples 0. 

WnrrES 11 — enblanched i, hoar 4, pale i, w^hite 5. 

Grays 3 — gray 3. 

Blacks i — black \. 

Total 32, distributed in classes as follows : A 6, B 5, C 8, D i, E 6, F 0, 
G 0, H 2, I o, K 0, X 2, Z 2. 

103 



I04 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

GOWER : VOCABULARY. 

Reds 17 — red 13, ruddy 4. 

Yellows i — yellow i. 

Browns 0. 

Greens 34 — green 34. 

Blues 3- — blue 2, heaven-coloured i. 

Purples i — purple i. 

Whites 48 — bleached i, fade 7, hoar 7, pale 12, white 20, snow-white i. 

Grays 4 — gray 3, steel i. 

Blacks 20 — black 19, coal-black i. 

Total 128, distributed in classes as follows: A 53, B 7, C 3, D II, E 
6, F 3, G 7, H 24, I I, K I, X 4, Z 8. 



CHAUCER : vocabulary. 

Reds 102 — bay 3, brazil i, grain i, madder i, red 79, fire-red I, rose-red I, 

scarlet-red i, rosy 4, ruby i, ruddy 4, sanguine 3, scarlet 2. 
Yellows 35 — citron i, fallow 2, gild 4, gold 10, latoun i, saffron i, sunny 2, 

weld I, yellow 13. 
Browns 9 — brown 9. 
Greens 76 — green 75, gaudy green i. 

Blues 17 — azure 2, bio i, blue 10, pers 2, wachet i, woad i. 
Purples 2 — purple 2. 
Whites 161 — ashen 6, bleached i, box i, hoar 8, ivory i, pale 43, pallid i, 

silver 2, snowy 2, wan 6, white 86, paper-white i, snow-white 3. 
Grays 15 — gray 14, leaden i. 
Blacks 63 — black 60, dun 2, sable i. 

Total 480, distributed in classes as follows: A 158, B 57, C 46, D 50, 
E 16, F 39, G 34, H 40, I 6, K 4, X 21, Z 9. 



SPENSER : vocabulary. 

Reds 125 — Assyrian (?) i, bloody 7, blush 17, carnation i, castory i, cherry i, 
copper I, crimson 3, damask i, flame i, red 26, blood-red 3, crimson 
red I, fiery red 3, rosy red to, sanguine red I, scarlet red I, vermeil 
red I, rosy 12, ruby 3, ruddy 7, sanguine 2, scarlet 8, vermeil 13. 

Yellows 129 — brazen 2, gilt 13, golden 96, ochre i, saffron i, tawny 3, yel- 
low 13. 

Browns 8 — brown 3, rusty-brown i, rusty 2, sunburnt i, tanned i. 

Greens 79 — emerald i, green 72, gaudy green i, pallid green i, verdant 4. 

Blues 28 — azure 8, blue 13, pallid blue i, cerulean i, sapphire 2, sky-colored 
I, watchet 2. 

Purples 42 — purple 42. 



COLOR-VOCABULARY 105 

Whites 243 — alabaster 3, ashy i, chalky i, cream i, hoary 28, ivory 14, lily 

12, marble 2, pale 22, pallid 6, pearl 3, silver 53, snowy 34, wan 8, white 

37, lily white 8, milk white 7, snow white 3. 
Grays 21 — blunket i, gray 15, hoary gray 5. 
Blacks 73 — black 50, coal-black 6, tomb black i, darksome 2, dun i, duskish 

2, ebon 3, pitchy i, sable 6, swart i. 

Total 748, distributed in classes as follows: A 325, B no, C 47, D 49, 
E 0, F 57, G 36, H 60, I 34, K I, X 24, Z 5. 

SHAKSPERE : VOCABULARY. 

Reds 309 — bay 3, bloody 2, blush 95, carnation 2, incaradine i, cherry 4, cop- 
per I, coral 3, crimson 24, damask 7, flame-colored i, flushing i, gilt [as 
with blood] 4, gules 2. Malmsey-[nose] i, peach-colored 2, red 103, bloody- 
red I, fiery red 2, over-red i, ripe-red i, wax-red i, roan 4, rosy 15, cheek- 
roses I, ruby 9, ruddy I, sanguine 4, scarlet 12, vermilion I. 

Yellows 112 — amber 2, auburn 2, Cain-colored i, fallow i, flaxen i, French- 
crown color I, gilded 16, golden 41, saffron 4, sallow i, straw-colored i, 
sunny 2, tawny 9, orange-tawny 2, yellow 28. 

Browns 35 — brown 24, chestnut i, freestone-colored i, hazel i, russet 2, 
sanded i, sunburnt 3, tanned 2. 

Greens 97 — emerald i, green 88, deep green i, grass green i, Kendel green 

2, seawater green i, verdure 3. 

Blues 40 — azure 4, black and blue 4, blue 30, heaven-hued i, welkin i. 

Purples 23 — purple 23. 

Whites 439 — alabaster 3, argentine i, ashy 3, paly ashes i, blanch i, bleach 

3, cream i, fair 19, frosty 2, hoar 3, ivory 6, lily 8, linen I, pale 152, ashy- 
pale I, cold-pale i, maid-pale I, pallid l, paper 2, silver 42, snowy i, tallow 
I, wan 5, whey i, white 159, lily-white 3, milk-white 6, pale-white i, silver- 
white 4, snow-white 6. 

Grays 35 — gray 31, grisly 4. 

Blacks 234 — black 180, coal-black 8, hell-black i, raven-black i, collied 2, 

dark 4, dun 4, dusky 4, ebon 3, inky 2, jet I, nighted i, pitchy 5, raven 2, 

sable 9, sooty i, swart 6. 

Total 1,324, distributed in classes as follows : A 675, B 80, C 69, D 66, 
E 12, F 85, G 105, H 48, I 25, K 7, X 30, Z 122. 

MILTON : VOCABULARY. 

Reds 28 — blush 2, carbuncle i, carnation 2, red 3, cloudy-red i, fiery-red i, 
rosy red I, rosy 6, roseate i, ruby 3, ruddy 2, sanguine 2, ensanguined i, 
vermeil i, envermeil i. 

Yellows 35 — amber 4, gold 24, verdant gold i, sallow i, tawny 2, yellow 3 

Browns 9 — brinded 2, brown 5, imbrowned i, russet i. 

Greens 44 — green 35, verdant 9. 



Io6 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

Blues 20 — azure 5, blue 8, sapphire 7. 

Purples 16 — grain 3, purple 12, impurpled i. 

Whites 45 — argent i, blank i, hoar 4, pale 17, pearl i, silver 5, wan 4, 

white 12. 
Grays 14 — gray 14. 
Blacks 45 — black 27, dark 3, dun 2, dusky 4, ebon i, jet i, sable 6, swart i. 

Total 256, distributed in classes as follows : A 47, B 23,0 8, D 13, E 6, F 31, 
G 52, H 54, I 14, K 2, X 0, Z 6. 

POPE : VOCABULARY. 

Reds 46 — blush 24, crimson i, red 13, rose 2, roseate i, rubric i, ruby i, rud- 
dier I, scarlet i. sorrel i. 

Yellows 26 — gilded 4, golden 15, sallow i, yellow 6. 

Browns 14 — adust 2, bronze 2, brown 5, embrown 2, nutbrown i, russet i, 
sunburnt i. 

Greens 45 — green 35, sea-green i, verdant 9. 

Blues 16 — azure 3, blue 10, black and blue i, livid 2. 

Purples 14 — purple 12, Tyrian 2. 

Whites 91 — argent i, fair i, hoary 4, ivory i, milky i, pale 20, pallid i, silver 
29, snowy I, white 30, milk-white 2. 

Grays 6 — grey 6. 

Blacks 39 — black 23, darksome i,dun i, dusky i, jetty i, sable 1 1, swarthy i, 
Total 297, distributed in classes as follows: A 88, B 21, C 24, D 32, E 3, 

F 21, G 17, H 42, I 22, K II, X 12, Z 4. 

THOMSON : VOCABULARY. 
Reds 85 — bay i, blush 23, carnation i, crimson 5, damask i, flaming 2, flush 3, 

red 24, black-red i, rosy 14, roseate 3, ruddy 4, sanguine i, ensanguined i, 

vermilion 1. 
Yellows 41 — gilded 6, gold 6, lurid 2, sallow i, sunny i, tawny 2, tawny- 
orange I, yellow 22. 
Browns 34 — brazen i, brindled i, brown 17, dark brown i, embrowned 6, 

fiery brown I, iron brown i, russet brown i, iron i, russet 3, sunburnt i. 
Greens 76 — green 41, dark green i, deep green i, sea-green i, wan-green i, 

verdant 31. 
Blues 53 ■?— azure 14, blue 25, cerulean 7, indigo i, livid 6. 
Purples 15 — purple 11, empurpled i, white-empurpled i, violet 2. 
Whites 90 — blank i, bleaching i, hoary 8, marble i, pale 19, pallid i, silver 

8, snowy 7, wan 2, white 41, snowy white i. 
Grays 13 — gray 12, leaden i. 
Blacks 75 — black 48, dark 3, sooty-dark i, dun 8, dusky 5, ebon i, jet 3, 

raven i, sable 5. 

Total 482, distributed in classes as follows : A 74, B 6, C 10, D 26, E 8, F 
43, G 99, H 132, I 49, K 5, X 14, Z 15. 



COLOR-VOCABULARY 107 



GRAY : VOCABULARY. 



Reds 18 — blocmi i, blush 7, crimson i, red i, rosy 5, ruddy i, sanguine i, ver- 
meil I. 

Yellows 12 — amber i. gilded 3, golden 7, tortoise i. 

Browns 2 — brown 2. 

Greens ii — emerald i, green 7, verdant 3. , 

Blues 9 — azure 4, blue 4, sapphire i. 

PuRPLFS 5 — purple 4, violet i. 

Whites 20 — faded i, hoary 4, pale 3, pallid 2, silver 2, snowy 2, wan 3, 
white 3. 

Grays 0. 

Blacks 12 — black 3, dusky 2, ebon i, jet i, sable 5. 

Total 89, distributed in classes as follows : A 26, B 6, C 4, D 7, E 0, F 6, 

G 13, H 13, I 4, K I, X 0, Z 9. 

GOLDSMITH : VOCABULARY. 

Reds 6 — damask i, red i, rouge i, ruddy 3. 

Yellows i — yellow-blossomed i. 

Browns 3 — brown 2, nut-brown i. 

Greens 3 — green 3. 

Blues 0. 

Purples i — purple i. 

Whites 4 — pale i, white 3. 

Grays 2 — gray 2. 

Blacks 6 — black 4, lamp-black i, dusky i. 

Total 26, distributed in classes as follows : A 6, B 7, C 6, D 0, E 0, F i, 
G I, H 4, I o, K 0, X I, Z 0. 

COWPER : VOCABULARY. 

Reds 65 — auburn 3, bloom i, blush 22, crimson 3, mantling 2, orient i, red 14, 
rosy 8, ruby i, ruddy 2, sanguine I, ensanguined i, scarlet 6. 

Yellows 30 — flaxen i, gilded 7, golden 16, tawny 2, yellow 4. 

Browns 9 — brown 4, russet 5. 

Greens 42 — green 33, dark-green 2, deep-green i, gilded-green i, verdant 5. 

Blues 18 — azure 5, black and blue i, blue 9, cerulean 2, livid i. 

Purples 7 — purple 7. 

Whites 43 — blanch i, bleaching i, hoary 4, ivory 2, lily i, pale 9, silver 6, 
snowy 6, wan 3, v/hite 9, snowy white i. 

Grays 14 — badger-colored i, gray 12, wannish gray i. 

Blacks 25 — black 12, dark 3, ebon 2, sable 6, swarthy 2. 

Total 253, distributed in classes as follows : A 65, B 9, C 21, D 20, E 0, 

F 46, G 26, H 48, I 4, K 0, X 0, Z 14. 



io8 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

SCOTT : VOCABULARY. 

Reds 301 — auburn i, bay i, bloody 4, blooming i, blushing 44, crimson 25 

flushed 9, gules i, hectic 2, red 147, blood-red 10, dark red 8, fiery red i, 

paly red I, swarthy red I, roan I, red roan i, rose 12, paly rose I, ruby I, 

ruddy 23, sanguine i, scarlet 5. 
Yellows 75 — amber i, fallow 2, flaxen 5, gilded 15, gold 29, paly gold i, 

lurid 2, or i, saffron l, sallow l, sunny i, tawny 4, yellow 12. 
Browns 70 — brindled i, brown 40, embrowned 3, berry-brown i, dark-brown 

6, deeper brown i, nut-brown 2, ruddy-brown i, chestnut i, hazel 5, russet 

5, sunburnt 4. 
Greens 142 — emerald 6, green 109, dark green 2, emerald green i, fairy 

green i, forest-green i, hunter's green i, Kendal green i, light green i 

Lincoln green 7, sepulchral green i, verdant 12. 
Blues 96 — azure 17, blue "68, dark blue 3, deadly blue 2, light blue i, livid 

blue 2, pale blue i, livid 2. 
Purples 29 — purple-amethyst i, purple 26, empurpled 2. 
Whites 348 — argent 2, ashen 2, blanch 4, bleach 4, fair 8, hoary 23, 

ivory i, light I, lily 2, pale 107, ashy pale i, pallid 8, pearl i, silver 63, 

snowy 22, wan 11, white 75, lily-white 2, milk-while 5, silver-white 3, 

snow-white 3. 
Grays 156 — gray 153, pale gray 3. 
Blacks 277 — black 52, coal-black 4, jet-black i, dark 95, dun 20, dusky 4, 

ebon I, jet 6, raven 3, sable 64, swarthy 27. 

Total 1,494, distributed in classes as follows: a\74, B 116, C 158, D loi, 
E 18, F 70, G 204, H 239, I 92, K 7, X 7, Z 8. 



COLERIDGE : VOCABULARY. 

Reds 93 ^auburn 2, bloody 2, blush 19, copper i, crimson 6, fire 2, flush 4, 

pinky-silver I, red 32, dark red i, dun-red i, rosy 15, roseate i, ruby i, 

scarlet 5. 
Yellows 24 — amber 3, golden 10, lurid 2, yellow 9. 
Browns 5 — brown 3, dark brown i, russet i. 

Greens 74 — emerald i, green 6, dark green 2, yellow-green i, verdant 4. 
Blues 48 — azure 2, blue 41, skiey blue i, cerulean i, livid 2, sapphire i. 
Purples 19 — amethyst i, purple 17, impurpled i. 
Whites 160 — fair i, hoary 8, lily 2, milky i, pale 54, pallid 4, silver 11, snowy 

7, wan 16, white 51, maiden-white i, milk-white i, snow-white 3. 
Grays 16 — grey 16. 
Blacks 82 — black 53, blue-black i, coal-black 2, jet-black i, dark 11, dusky 

I, ebon 2, pitchy i, raven 2, sable 7, swart i. 

Total 521, distributed in classes as follows : A 166, B 23, C 16, D 25, E 
9, F 67, G 91, H 72, I 23, K 2, X I, Z 26. 



COLOR-VOCABULARY 109 



WORDSWORTH: VOCABULARY. 



Reds 129- — bloom 6, blush 11, carnation i, crimson 15, fiery 2, flame 2, flush 3, 
pink I, red 33, blood-red i, deep-red i, dull-red 4, military-red 2, rosy-red 
I, rosy 19, roseate 4, ruby I, ruddy 9, scarlet 10, martial scarlet I, ver- 
milion 2. 

Yellows no — amber 2, fallow i, gilded 10, golden 58, lurid 3, orange 2, 
saffron i, sallow i, tawny 4, deep yellow I, yellow 27. 

Browns 29 — bronzed i, brown 12, embrown i, dark brown 2, Egyptian brown 
I, iron-brown I, red-brown I, hazel I, russet i, rusty 2, sunburnt 6. 

Greens 295 — emerald 4, green 269, gloomy green i, grass-green i, leaf-green 

1, olive green i, pea-green i, sea green i, tawny green i, verdant 15. 
Blues 124 — azure 22, blue 80, black-blue i, dark blue 2, gloomy blue i, pale 

blue I, sable blue i, sapphire blue i, sky-blue 2, cerulean 10, harebell i, 

sapphire 2. 
Purples 39 — grain-tinctured i, purple 30, purpurea! 4, empurpled 2,Tyrian i, 

violet I. 
Whites 286 — alabaster i, blanch i, bleach 3, ghastly i, hoary 35, marble i, 

pale 49, pallid 14, silver 46, wan 11, white 98, milk-white 7, pearly-white 

2, snow-white 17. 

Grays 92 — grey 91, silver-grey i. 

Blacks in — black 63, coal-black i, dark 31, dusky 6, ebon 2, jet i, raven i, 

sable 4, sooty i, Stygian i. 

Total 1,215, distributed in classes as follows: A 217, B 57, C 50, D 81, 
E 9, F 123, G 208, H 379, 1 70, K 2, X 4, Z 15. 

BYRON : VOCABULARY. 

Reds 282 — auburn 8, bloom 7, blush 70, swarthy black i, carnation 2, incarna- 
dine 2, copper I, coral i, crimson 28, flame I, flushed 10, hectic 3, pink i, 
pomegranate I, red 89, autumnal-leaf-like red I, blood-red 7, dark red I, 
dusky red I, gory red i, roan i, rose 26, rouged I, ruby I, ruddy 2, san- 
guine 2, scarlet 9, vermilion 3. 

Yellows 102 — amber 2, buff i, flaxen i, flesh-colored i, gild 25, gold 25, 
lurid I, orange 2, saffron 4, sallow 7, sulphurous I, yellow 32. 

Browns 22 — brazen i, bronze 2, ruddy bronze i, brown 6, dark-brown i, 
light-brown i, nut-brown 2, brunette I, chestnut i, hazel i, mahogany I, 
sunburnt 4. 

Greens no — emerald 7, green 82, dark-green 3, deep green i, dull green i, 
dusky green i, sea green i, verdant 14. 

Blues 193 — azure 23, alpine azure i, blue 139, dark-blue 11, deep-blue 8, 
pale-blue 2, cerulean i, livid 7, sapphire i.^ 

Purples 48 — hyacinthine i, lilac i, purple 40, empurpled 2, deep-purple 2, 
purple hectic i, violet i. 



I lo COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

Whites 360 — ashes 2, blanch i, bleach 2, blonde i, fair 22, hoar 38, ivory i, 

marble I, pale 108, pallid 6, pearl 2, silver 17, snovi'y 15, swanlike i, wan 

4, waxen i, white 133, milk-white 3, snow-white 2. 
Grays 58 — gray 56, dark-gray I, silver-gray I. 
Blacks 330 — black 158, coal-black 2, death-black i, jet-black 2, dark 75, dun 

12, dusky 18, ebon i, inky i, jet 4, raven 9, sable 35, sooty i, swarthy 11. 

Total 1,515, distributed in classes as follows : A 639, B 122, C 131, D 35, 
E 15, F 35, G 135, H 149, I 131, K 9, X 22, Z 92. 

SHELLEY : VOCABULARY. 

L Reds 142 — blush 7, death-blushing i, crimson 21, faint-crimson i, dawn-tinted 
I, flush 9, gore i, gules i, pink i, red 66, blood-red 7, dark-red 2, rosy 8, 
roseate 3, ruddy 3, sanguine 5, rose-ensanguined i, vermilion 4. 
(/ Yellows 158- — amber 2, brimstone i, gilded i, golden* 109, purple gold i, 
deep-red gold i, heaven-colored i, lurid 8; orange 4, sallow i, sulphurous 
4, waxen '2, yellow 23. 
^ Browns 14-^ bacon i, brinded i, brown 11, iron i. 
I Gr'^ens 183 — chrysolite 3, emerald 15, glaucous i, green 153, dark green 5, 
^ deep green i, sea green 2, verdant 3. 

Blues 18^ — azure 66, blue 96, dark blue 6, lurid blue i, pale blue 2, livid 3, 

sapphire 8. 
Purples 52 — amethyst 5, purple 42, purpureal i,dark purple i, deepest purple 

1, pale purple i, violet i. 

Whites 514 — alabaster i, argentine i, ashy i, blanch 2, bleach i, fair 4, hoary 
53, ivory i, marble 4, milky I, moonlight colored 2, pale 196, pallid 20, 
pearl 3, silver 45, snowy 15, wan 34, white 123, milk-white 4, snow-white 

2, wool-white i. 
\ 

Gray-S 99 — ashen i, cinereous i, grey 92, dark grey i, hoary grey i, leaden- 

. colored 3. 

Blacks 160 — black 74, hell-black i, night-black i, dark 60, darksome 2, dun 

9, dusky 3, ebon 4, inky i, pitchy i, swart 4. 

Total 1,504, distributed in classes as follows: A 380, B 24, C 77, D 51, 
E 16, F III, G 419, H 214, I 127, K 6, X 10, Z 69. 



KEATS : vocabulary. 

Reds 121 — auberne i, bloom 4, blush 22, cherry i, coral i, crimson 8, damask 
3, flush 12, gules I, pink 3, red 16, blood-red 3, rosy 17, roseate i, ruby 4, 
rubious i, rubious-argent i, ruddy 6, sanguineous i, scarlet 6, vermil- 
ion 9. 

Yellows 123 — amber 81, ardent i, fallow i, gild 2, golden 100, sober gold i, 
tawny 2, yellow 7, volcanian yellow I. 

Browns 14 — bronzed 3, brown 7, hazel i, olive i, sunburnt i, tann'd i. 



COLOR- VOCABULARY 1 1 1 

Greens 123 — emerald 5, green 99, beechen-green i, blue-green i, dark green 

1, deep green i, forest-green i, gold green i, grass green i, light green 2, 
Lincoln green I, meadow green I, verdant 9. 

Blues 76 — azure 6, black and blue i, blue 52, dark blue 4, deep blue i, light 

blue 2, cerulean i, livid I, sapphire 7, turquoise i. 
Purples 30 — amethyst 4, purple 24, empurple i, dark violet i. 
Whites 310 — alabaster i, argent 5, blanched 3, creamy 2, fair 2, ivory 5, lily 

8, marble 2, milky 4, pale 55, death-pale 2, pallid 6, pearly 5, silver 78, wan 

silver i, snowy 8, starlight l, wan 9, white 95, frost-while l, lily-white 2, 

milk-white 4, silver- white i, snow-white i. 
Grays 25 — grey 24, dark grey i. 
Blacks 79 — black 29, jet-black i, dark 19, dun 3, dusky 3, ebon 7, jet 5, raven 

2, sable 2, sooty i, swart 7. 

Total 901, distributed in classes as follows : A 243, B 43, C 80, D 77, E 
16, F 96, G 150, H 103, I 37, K 12, X 13, Z 31. 

COMPARATIVE VOCABULARY. 

The color-vocabulary of the sixteenth century, as represented by Spenser 
and Shakspere, and that of the Romantic Period, as represented by Scott, Cole- 
ridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, and Keats. 

Words found only in the Elizabethan vocabulary are placed between 
brackets [ ]; those found only in the Romantic, between parentheses ( ). 
Words common to the two stand without either. 

Reds: [Assyrian], (auburn), bay, bloody, (bloom), blush, (death-blushing) 
(swarthy-blush), carnation, incarnadine, [castory], cherry, copper, coral, 
crimson, damask, (dawn-tinted), (fiery), flame-coloured, flush, [gilt (as with 
blood)], gore, gules, (hectic), (purple-hectic), [Malmsey], [peach-coloured], 
(pink), (pinky-silver), (pomegranate), red, (autumnal-leaf-like-red), blood- 
red, [crimson-red], (dark-red), (deep-red), (dull-red), (dun-red), (dusky- 
red), fiery-red, (gory-red), (military-red), (paly-red), rose-red, [sanguine- 
red], [scarlet-red], (swarthy-red), [vermeil-red], [wax-red], roan, (red- 
roan), rosy, [cheek-roses], (paly-rose), (roseate), (rouged), ruby, (rubious), 
(rubious-argent), ruddy, sanguine, (sanguineous), (rose-ensanguined), scar- 
let, vermeil or vermilion. 

Yellows: amber, (ardent), [auberne], (brimstone), (buff), [Cain-coloured], 
fallow, flaxen, (flesh-coloured), [French-crown-coloured], gilded, golden, 
(deep-red-gold), (paly-gold), (purple-gold), (sober-gold), (heaven-coloured), 
(lurid), [ochre], (or), (orange), saffron, sallow, [straw-coloured], sunny, 
(sulphurous), tawny, [orange-tawny], (topaz), (waxen), yellow, (deep vol- 
canian-yellow). 

Browns : (bacon), (brazen), (bronzed), (brinded), brown, (embrowned), (berry- 
brown), (dark-brown), (deep-brown), (Egyptian-brown), (iron-brown), 
(light-brown), (nut-brown), (red-brown), (ruddy-brown), [rusty-brown], 



112 COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 

(brunette), chestnut, [freestone-coloured], hazel, (iron), (mahogany), (olive), 
russet, rusty, [sanded], sunburnt, tanned. 
Greens : (chrysolite), emerald, (glaucous), green, (beechen-green), (blue-green), 
(dark-green), deep-green, (dull-green), (dusky-green), (emerald-green), 
(evergreen), (forest-green), [gaudy-green], (gloomy-green), (gold-green), 
grass-green, (hunter's green), Kendal-green, (leaf-green), (light-green), 
(Lincoln-green), (meadow-green), (olive-green), [pallid-green], (pea-green), 
(sea-green), [sea-vi^ater-green], (sepulchral-green), (tawny-green), (yellow- 
green), verdant. 
Blues : azure, black-and-blue, blue, (black-blue), (dark-blue), (dead-blue), 
(deep-blue), (gloomy-blue), (light-blue), (livid-blue), (lurid-blue), (pale-blue), 
[pallid-blue], (sable-blue), (sapphire-blue), (skiey-blue), cerulean, (harebell), 
[heaven-hued], (livid), sapphire, [watchet], [sky-coloured], [welkin], (tur- 
quoise). 
Purples: (amethyst), (purple-amethyst), (grain-tinctured), (hyacinthine), 
(lilac), purple, (purpureal), (dark-purple), (deepest-purple), (empurpled), 
(white-empurpled), (Tyrian), (violet), (dark-violet). 
Whites : alabaster, argent, ashen, blanch, bleach, (blonde), [chalky], cream, 
fair, [frosty], ghastly-hued, hoary, ivory, (light), lily, [linen-(faced)], marble, 
(milky), (moonlight-coloured), pale, ashy-pale, pale, [cold-pale], (death- 
pale), [maid pale], pallid, [paper-(faced)], pearl, silver, (silver- wan), 
snowy, (starlight), (swanlike), [tallow-(faced)], wan, waxen, [whey-(faced)], 
white, (frost-white), lily-white, milk-white, [pale-white], (pearly-white), 
silver-white, snow-white, (wool-white). 
Grays: [blunket], (cinereous), gray, (dark-gray), hoary-gray, (pale-gray), 

(silver-gray), [grizly-(hued)], (leaden-coloured). 
Blacks : black, (blue-black), coal-black, (death-black), hell-black, (jet-black), 
(night-black), [raven-black], [tomb-black], [collied], dark, dun, dusky, 
ebon, inky, jet, [nighted], pitchy, raven, sable, sooty, (Stygian), swart or 
swarthy. 

Note. — I have uniformly used the hyphen in the compound hues listed 
above, although it is not always found in the texts from which I have cata- 
logued. 

II. COLOR-SCALE. 

Table II : The actual number of each poet's uses of color, arranged 
under the nine color-groups, together with the total number of lines catalogued 
for each and the color average of each per i,ooo lines. 

Table III : The percentage of color falling in each color-group, based on 
the figures of II. Also a division by percentages of each poet's total color in 
definite and indefinite hues. 

Table IV: The ten color-words oftenest used by ea,ch poet, arranged in 
order of preference. 



COLOR-DISTRIB UTION 1 1 3 

Table V. The nine color-groups arranged in order of frequency of use 
and thus showing each poet's color-scale. 

III. COLOR-DISTRIBUTION. 

SCHEME OF CLASSIFICATION. 

I. Man and his Works. 

A. The Human Body: skin, veins, blood, eyes, hair, nails, blemishes. 
Here are also included gods, angels, demons, fairies, ghosts, mythological 
beings, distinct personifications, and representations of any of these 
beings in art. 

B. The Attire of man and of the other beings included under A, including 
feathers and furs when worn, war-gear, badges, and all adornments 
other than gems and flowers. ' 

C. Manufactured Articles: weapons, implements, prepared food and 
drink, furniture, walls, buildings ; also dens, caves, bowers, and the 
like, when spoken of as dwellings. 

II. Nature. 

D. Animal-life : beasts, birds, fishes, insects ; also natural animal products, 
such as honey, eggs, milk ; not including shells and ivory. 

E. Minerals (when not treated on a large scale): metals, gems, sands, 
ivory, marble, porphyry, and the like ; shells, ashes. 

F. Flowers and Fruits, with mosses and plants or trees mentioned by 
name, or selected for special notice. 

G. The Heavens and their phenomena : clouds, air, mist, and atmospheric 
effects in general ; heavenly bodies, smoke, flame. 

H. The Land in its general aspects: fields, mountains, cliffs, woods, 
deserts, abysses, shadows ; also ruins when part of landscape. 
I. The Waters: ocean, lake, river, foam, dew, rain, frost, ice, snow. 
K. Miscellaneous objects: e. g., "things," "distant speck." 

Color as mere Color. -, 0- ^ ^ 'L 

X. Hues, pigments, dyestuffs. ^ 

IV. Abstractions. 

Z. Abstract qualities, or objects treated in a purely metaphorical or sym- Ij ^ 
bolical way, e. g., "grene conscience," "red fury," " black heart." ^ 

Table VI : The actual number of each poet's color-uses arranged accord- 
ing to the twelve fields of interest noted in the scheme of classification. 

Table VII : The percentage of color falling in each field of interest, based 
on the figures of VI. 

Table Vlll : Percentages, for the Romanticists as a body, showing how 
each color-group is distributed through the fields A-Z. 



in. 



Kt) 



^i^ 



114 



COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 



Table IX : Percentages, for the Romanticists as a body, showing for each 
field of interest the distribution of colors within it. 

Chart A : Terms applied by all the poets catalogued to Eyes, to Hair, 
to Skin. 

Chart B : Terms applied by all the poets catalogued to Sky and Cloud, 
to Vegetation, to Mountains, and to Deep Waters. 



TABLE L 
Showing the number of variants used in each color-group. 



Langland . . 

Gower 

Chaucer. . . . 
Spenser .. . . 
Shakspere . . 

Milton 

Pope 

Thomson . . 

Gray 

Goldsmith . . 
Cowper .. . . 

Scott 

Coleridge. . . 
Wordsworth 

Byron 

Shelley . . . . 
Keats . . 





1 


S 


s' 


^ 


1, 


t 


>. 


^ 


"S 




g 




3 




2 


■ 2 


« 


Pi 


>• 


a 





a 


' 


^ 





M 


2 


2 




I 


I 


.. 


4 


I 


I 


2 


I 




I 


2 


I 


6 


2 


2 


13 


9 


I 


2 


6 


I 


13 


2 


3 


25 


S 


5 


5 


7 


I 


18 


3 


10 


30 


15 


8 


7 


.S 


I 


30 


2 


16 


12 


6 


3 


2 


3 


2 


8 


I 


8 


9 


4 


6 


3 


4 


2 


II 


I 


7 


13 


8 


ID 


5 


5 


3 


II 


2 


9 


8 


4 


I 


3 


3 


2 


8 




5 


4 


I 


2 


I 




I 


2 


I 


3 


13 


5 


2 


5 


5 


I 


II 


3 


5 


23 


13 


II 


12 


8 


2 


21 


2 


II 


14 


4 


3 


5 


6 


2 


13 


I 


II 


20 


II 


10 


10 


12 


4 


14 


2 


ID 


29 


12 


12 


8 


9 


5 


19 


3 


14 


17 


13 


4 


8 


7 


fa 


21 


4 


10 


19 


9 


6 


13 


10 


3 


25 


2 


" 



IIS 



TABLE II. 



Showing for individual poets the number of times each color-group is used, 
the total number of lines counted, and the color-average per i,ooo lines. 



Chaucer .... 
Spenser ... 
Shakspere . , 

Milton 

Pope 

Thomson . . , 

Cowper 

Scott 

Coleridge . . 
Wordsworth . 
Byron . 
Shelley 
Keats. . 



« 


> 


cS 


6 


1 

3 


3. 
& 


t 


6 


1 
S 


s 


Number 
of lines 
cata- 
logued 


102 


3.S 


9 


76 


17 


2 


161 


15 


63 


480 


34.109 


125. 


129 


8 


79 


28 


42 


243 


21 


73 


74« 


45-553 


309 


112 


35 


97 


40 


23 


439 


35 


234 


1324 


iob,204" 


28 


.3^ 


9 


44 


20 


16 


45 


14 


45 


2S6 


16,987 


46 


26 


•4 


45 


16 


14 


91 


6 


39 


297 


10,287 


«5 


41 


34 


7b 


53 


15 


90 


13 


75 


482 


13,158 


65 


.30 


9 


42 


18 


7 


42 


14 


25 


252 


20,145 


.'^03 


7,S 


70 


143 


96 


29 


34« 


15b 


297 


1495 


30,947 


93 


24 


5 


94 


48 


19 


160 


lb 


82 


523 


20,189 


i2g 


-no 


29 


295 


124 


39 


28b 


92 


III 


1215 


55,343 


282 


105 


22 


III 


196 


47 


3b I 


5« 


329 


1511 


59,999 


142 


15H 


14 


183 


182 


52 


51S 


98 


I bo 


1432 


30,030 


121 


123 


14 


123 


7b 


30 


310 


23 


79 


901 


13,991 



^ Leopold edition. 



TABLE III. 



Showing the percentage of each color-group, for the poets named ; and in 
addition showing the percentages of definite and indefinite hues in each. 



Chaucer . . . 
Spenser . . . 
Shakspere. . 
Milton . . . . 

Pope 

Thomson . . . 
Cowper . . . . 

Scott 

Coleridge . . 
Wordsworth 

Byron 

Shelley . . : . 
Keats. . . .. . 









m 


-o 




S 


J^ 










c< 


> 


CQ 





21 


7 


2 


lb 


17 


17 




II 


24 


9 




7 


II 


14 




17 


15 


9 




15 


18 


8 




lb 


26 


12 




17 


20 


5+ 




9 


18 


5 




14 


10 


9 




24 


19 


7 




7 


10 


10 




12 


14 


14 




14 


" 


^ 




*. 



1 


1 


f 


13 


100^ 


14 


10 


100 


10 


16 


100 


24 


17 


100 


lb 


13 


100 


20 


16 


100 


17 


10 


100 


19 


18 


100 


24 


lb 


100 


21 


9 


100 


15 


22 


100 


25 


11 


100 


2.8 


9 


100 


17 



ii6 



COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 





s 

^ 


green log 
white I04 
golden loi 
silver 7g 
blue 5g 
pale 57 
black 30 
purplfe 25 
gray -- 25 
red 19 




1 


pale 196 
green 162 
white 130 
golden 112 
blue 105 
gray 94 
black 76 
red 75 
azure 66 
dark 62 




1 

pq 


black 164 
blue 160 
white 139 
pale log 
red 90 
green go 
dark 74 
blush 71 
gray 58 
purple 44 




1 


green 276 
white 134 
gray 92 
blue 8g 
black 64 
golden 58 
pal6 4g 
silver 46 
red 42 
purple 36 




1 

I 


green 6g 
black 57 
white 56 
pale 54 
blue 42 
red 34 
blush ig 
purple 18 
rosy 16 
wan 16 




1 


red i6g 
gray 156 
green 124 

daik '°^ 
white 88 
blue 77 
sable 64 
silver 63 
brown 54 




1 

J 


f[ush ^2^ 
gold 16 
red 14 

white 10 
blue g 
pale 9 
rosy 8 




c 
g 


black 48 
green 45 
white 41 
verdant 30 
brown 26 
red 25 
blue 24 
yellow 22 
blush 22 
pale 18 




1 


green 35 
white 32 
silver 2g 
blush 24 
black 22 
pale 20 
golden 15 
purple 12 
red 12 
blue 10 
verdant g 




S 


green 35 
black 27 
gold 25 
pale 17 
gray 14 
purple 13 
white 12 
blue 8 
sapphire 7 
brown 6 
red 6 




1 


black I go 
white 179 
pale 155 
red 109 
blush 95 
green g3 
silver 42 
golden 41 
gray 31 
blue 30 




1 


golden 96 
green .74 
black 57 
white 55 
silver 53 
red 46 
purple 42 
snowy 33 
hoary 28 
pale 22 




1 


white 90 
red 82 
green 76 
black 60 
pale 43 

gold 10 
blue 10 
brown 9 













Whites 

Reds 

Blacks 

Greens 

Blues 

Yellows 

Grays 

Purples 

Browns 




S 
^ 


Whites 310 
Greens 123 
Yellows 123 
Reds 121 
Blacks 79 
Blues 76 
Purples 30 
Grays 25 
Browns 14 




^ 
^ 
w 


Whites 515 
Greens 183 
Blues 182 
Blacks 160 
Yellows 158 
Reds 142 
Grays 98 
Purples 52 
Browns 14 




m 


Whites 361 
Blacks 3og 
Reds 284 
Blues ig5 
Greens no 
Yellows 105 
Grays 58 
Purples 47 
Browns 22 




1 

1 


Greens 2g5 
Whites 286 
Reds i2g 
Blues 124 
Blacks in 
Yellows no 
Grays 92 
Purples 39 
Browns 29 




S, 


Whites ,160 
Reds 93 
Blacks 82 
Greens 74 
Blues 48 
Yellows 24 
Purples 19 
Grays 16 
Browns 5 






Whites 348 
Reds 301 
Blacks 277 
Grays 156 
Greens 142 
Blues 96 
Yellows 75 
Browns 70 
Purples 29 




1 


Reds 66 
Greens 42 
Whites 41 
Yellows 30 
Blacks 25 
Blues 18 
Grays 14 
Browns 9 
Purples 7 




1 

s 



Whites go 
Reds 85 
Greens 75 
Blacks *75 
Blues 53 
Yellows 41 
Browns 34 
Purples 15 
Grays 13 




1 


Whites gi 
Reds 46 
Greens 45 
Blacks 3g 
Yellows 26 
Blues 16 
Purples 14 

Grays 6 




1 


Whites 45 
Blacks 45 
Greens 44 
Yellows 35 
Reds 28 
Blues 20 
Purples 16 
Grays 14 
Browns g 






Whites 43g 
Reds 309 
Blacks 234 
Yellows 112 
Greens 97 
Blues 40 
Browns 35 
Grays 35 
Purples 23 




1 


Whites 243 
Yellows 129 
Reds 125 
Greens 79 
Blacks 73 
Purples 42 
Blues Is 
Grays 21 
Browns 8 




U 


Whites 161 
Reds 102 
Greens 76 
Blacks 63 
Yellows 35 
Blues 17 
Grays 15 
Browns 9 
Purples 2 



TABLES 



117 



TABLE VI. 

Showing the total nuinber of words in each class. 

(Basis of Table VII.) 



Chaucer. . . . 
Spenser .... 
Shakspere .. 

Milton 

Pope 

Thomson . . . 
Cowper .... 

Scott 

Coleridge . . 
Wordsworth. 

Byron 

Shelley 

Keats 



A 


B 


c 


D 


E 


F 


G 


H 


I 


K 


X 


z 


I.S8 


.S7 


46 


.SO 


16 


39 


34 


40 


6 


4 


21 


9 


.S2,S 


no 


' 47 


49 




57 


36 


bo 


34 


I 


24 


5 


67. S 


80 


69 


65 


12 


«5 


105 


4« 


2b 


7 


30 


122 


47 


23 


8 


13 


b 


31 


52 


54 


14 


2 




b 


88 


21 


24 


32 


3 


21 


17 


42 


22 


12 


12 


4 


74 


6 


10 


26 


8 


43 


99 


130 


49 


5 


14 


15 


t).S 


10 


20 


20 




4t) 


2b 


47 


4 






14 


474 


116 


IS8 


lOI 


18 


70 


2C4 


239 


92 


7 


7 


8 


166 


23 


16 


2.S 


9 


67 


91 


72 


23 


2 


I 


2b 


217 


.S7 


.SO 


81 


9 


123 


208 


379 


70 


2 


4 


15 


6.-^9 


122 


131 


35 


15 


35 


13s 


149 


131 


9 


22 


92 


380 


24 


77 


51 


16 


III 


419 


214 


127 


b 


10 


b9 


243 


43 


80 


77 


lb 


9b 


150 


103 


37 


12 


13 


31 



480 

948 
1324 
256 

297 
481 

252 

1494 
521 
I2I5 

1 5 15 
1504 
901 



TABLE VII. 
Percentage of color falling in each class. 



Chaucer . . . 
Spenser . . . . 
Shakspere . 

Milton 

Pope 

Thomson . . 

Cowper 

Sdott 

Coleridge , . 
Wordsworth 

Byron 

Shelley 

Keats 



A 


B 


.C 


D 


E 


F 


G 


H 


I 


K 


X 


Z 

2 


33 


12 


9 


10 


4 


8 


7 


8 


I 


I 


5 


43 


15 


b 


b 




7 


5 


8 


5 


i 


4 


i 


52 


b 


5 


5 


I 


b 


8 


3 


2 


I 


2 


9 


18 


9 




S 


2 


13 


20 


21 


b 


I 




2 


28 


7 


8 


II 


I 


7 


6 


14 


8 


4 


4 


2 


lb 


I 


2 


s 


2 


9 


21 


27 


10 


I 


3 


3 


2b 


4 


8 


8 




18 


10 


18 


2 






b 


32 


8 


10 


7 


I 


5 


i.3i 


lb 


b 


i 


i- 


i- 


32 


4 


3 


5 


2 


13 


17 


14 


4 


T'. 


T^l. 


5 


17 


5 


4 


7 


I 


10 


17 


31 


b 


fV 


t'it 


I 


42 


8 


9 


2 


I 


2 


9 


10 


8 


I 


2 


b 


25 


2 


5 


3 


I 


7 


28 


14 


8 


I 


I 


5 


27 


' 


9 


8 


2 


II 


17 


II 


4 


I 


I 


3 



100% 

100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 



ii8 



COLOR IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY 



TABLE VIII. 



Reds .. 
Yellows 
Browns. 
Greens. 
Blues . . 
Purples. 
Whites . 
Grays . . 
Blacks . 



A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


F 


G 


H 


1 


K 


X 


z 


28 


8 


15 


4 


I 


10 


21 


5 


3 


I 


I 


3 


15 


4 


II 


8 


3 


13 


31 


7 


4 


I 


I 


2 


39 


3 


8 


b 




7 


3 


32 


I 




I 




I 


4 


I 


3 


k 


10 


2 


72 


5 


.t 


k 




17 


b 


4 


2 


2 


3 


3« 


5 


19 








Q 


12 


s 


2 


I 


iq 


2q 


12 


7 




I 




27 


8 


10 


II 


I 


6 


lb 


5 


13 


i 


I 


i^ 


39 


4 


12 


5 


I 


2 


IS 


lb 


I 




I 




27 


9 


10 


7 


^ 


3 


12 


12 


,4 


' 


2 


12 



100;, 

100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 



TABLE IX. 



A 

B 

C 

D 

E 

F 

G 

II 

I 

K 

X 

Z 



-S 


% 


S 


c 


!fi 


a 


I 




_2 


^1 


^ 

^ 




5 


Si 


5 


S. 


12 


2 



S 


^ 


IJ 


4 


3 


?r 


b 


1 


8 


9 


46 


18 


b 


I 


II 


12 


7 


21 


5 


lb 


3 


24 


II 


3 


3 


5 


2 


21 


II 


13 


7 


10 


II 


2 


7 


4* 


I 


32 


b 


i,S 


12 


17 


23 




4 


17 


2 


16 


4 


10 


7 


lb 


14 


2 


18 


4 


8 


13 


2 


4 


19 


14 


14 


I 


I 


22 


.s 


14 


-S 


7 


17 


4 


3 


4 


5 b 


3 


2 


4 


7 


7 


10 


b 


,s 


2 


10 


27 


3 


28 


I 


,s 


13 


20 


18 




9 






18 


3 


29 


12 


21 


9 


2 


7 


II 


3 


18 


5 


17 


7 


12 


4 




b 


II 


3 


7 


7 


33 


17 



[00 
100 
100 
[00 



Tables VIII and IX sum up the figures of the six Romanticists. 



LBJa'05 













CHART " 


A," COLOR-wd 


DS 




Langland 


GOWER 


Chaucer 


Spenser 


Shakspere 


Milton 


Pope 


Thoms( 


Terms for 




gray 
heaven- 


citryn 


sapphire 


black 




blue 


azure ' 


b 


Eyes 




gray 


(used as a 


blue 




pale 


blue i 








colored 


red 


noun) 


dark 






pale 










" betwixe 




green 














yelw and 




Kz^l 
















reed " 






















pale- 




















pink 




















pitch- 




















red 




















welkin 










Terms for 


hoar 


hoar 


black 


black 


amber 


golden 


gray 


black 


i 


Hair 




white 


gilt 


copper- 


auburn 


gray 


red 


brown J 








yellow 


gold 
^oa^ 


colored 
golden 


black 
coal-black 


white 


sable 


ebon 
gray 
hoary ; 










gray 


brown 














red 


hoary gray 


Cain-colored 






jet 1 










saffron 


hoary 


chestnut 






silver 










sunny 


silver 


flaxen 






sunny 










white 


white 


French- 






white •' 










yellow 


snow-white 
yellow 


crown - 
frosty 
golden 
gray 

inky 

orange-tawny 

purple-in- 






yellow : 
































grain 




















raven 




















sable 




















silver 




















straw-colored 




















sunny 




















white 




















silver-white 




















yellow 










Terms for 


pale 


bleche 


ashen 


alabaster 


alabaster 


blush 


adust 


black 




q 


ruddy 


fade 


black 


ashy 


ashy 


dusky 


black 


blush r 








pale 


blue 


black 


azure 


grain 


blue 


brown 








red 


box- 


blue 


black 


pale 


bronze 


carnation 








ruddy 


brown 


blush 


black & blue 


red 


brown 


crimson 








white 


fallow 


carnation 


blanch 


rosy red 


nut-brown 


jet 










green 


cream 


blue 


swart 


fair 


livid 










ivory 


crimson 


blush 


vermeil 


& 


pale 










leaden 


flame 


brown 


wan 


red 










pale 


ivory 


cherry 


white 


pale 


rosy 


« 








pallid 


lily 


copper 




pallid 


roseate 


n 








purple 


marble 


cream 




red 


ruddy 










red 


pale 


crimson 




rose 


sable 










fire -red 


pallid 


damask 




sable 


snowy 










rosy 


purple 


dark 




sallow 


vermilion 










ruby 


red 


dun 




snowy 


white 










ruddy 


rosy -red 


fair 




sunburnt 


yellow j 






. 




sanguine 


rosy 


flushing 




swarthy 












scarlet 


ruddy 


freestone 




white 












snowy 


silver 


green 
















wan 


snowy 


ivory 
















white 


sunburnt 

swarthy 

tann'd 

tawny 

vermilion 

wan 

white 

lily-white 

milk-white 


lily 
hnen- 
malmsey- 
pale 

paly ashes 
ashv pale 
cold' pale 
maid pale 


















pallid 




















paper- 




















raven 




















red 








( 












rosy 








1 












ruby 
sable 




















saffron 




















tallow- 








i 












sanguine 




















sunburnt 




















swart 




















sooty 








































whey- 




















white 




















lily-white 




















milk-white 




















pale-white 




















snow-white 




















yellow 






1 


- 



)|:ds applied to 


MAN. 














»| 1 Gray 


Goldsmith 


COWPER 


Scott 


Coleridge 


Wordsworth 


Byron 


Shelley 


Keats 


i 


















1 blue 






azure 


black 


azure 


azure 


azure 


blue 








black 


blue 


black 


black 


black 


deep blue 








blue 


dark 


cerulean 


blue 


blue 


dark 








deadly blue 


red 


dark 


deep blue 
dark 


dark blue 


deep green 






1 


light blue 




gray 
harebell 


brown 


pale 






1 


pale blue 




gray 


dark 


violet 








dark 




sable 


dark gray 


green 










gray 






red 


lurid 










hazel 






white 


pale 










lurid 








red 










sable 


















swarthy 


















tawny 








1 




hoary 




auburn 


amber 


auburn 


black 


auburn 


black 


auburn 




flaxen 


auburn 


jet-black 


coal-black 


black 


brown 


black 






golden 


black 


green 


brown 


brown 


fair 


dark 






gray 


coal-black 


hoary 


dark-brown 


dark -brown 


golden 


ebon 






hoary 


jet-black 


dark 


light -brown 


gray 


golden 






silver 


bleached 


sable 


dusky 


chestnut 


hoary gray 


^oa^ 






white 


brown 


silver 


golden 


dark 


green 
hoary 








dark -brown 


white 


gray 


fair 


jet 








nut-brown 


yellow 


silver-gray 


flaxen 


silver 


white 








dark 




hoary 


golden 


white 


frost-white 








fair 




red 


gray 


snow-white 


snow-white 








golden 




rusty 


silver -gray 


yellow 










paly gold 




silver 


green 
hazel 












gray 




white 












hazel 




snow-white 


hoar 












hoary 




yellow 


hyacinthine 












jet 






inky 












light 






jet 












raven 






raven 












red 






red 












sable 






sable 












silver 






silver 












snowy 






white 












white 






yellow 












silver-white 


















yellow 












bloom 


brown 


black 


ashen 


black 


black 


ashes 


alabaster 


azure 


blush 


damask 


black & blue 


black 


blue 


blanch 


black 


ashen 


black 


: dusky 


dusky 


blue 


blanch 


blush 


blush 


blanched 


black 


black & blue 


faded 


pale"^ 


bloom 


blooming 


brown 


brown 


blonde 


blanched 


blanch 


pale 


red 


blushing 


blue 


crimson 


Egyptian 


blush 


blue 


bloomed 


!: pallid 


ruddy 


lily 


blush 


dark 


brown 


swarthy blush 


blushing 


blush 


:! purple 




mantling 


brown 


flush 


carnation 


bronze 


brimstone 


bronzed 


rosy 




orient 


ruddy-brown 


lily 


dark 


nut-brown 


brown 


brown 


sable 




pale 


crimson 


livid 


dusky 


brunette 


crimson 


creamy 


wan 




red 


dark 


lurid 


flushed 


carnation 


fair 


damask 


white 




rosy 


fair 


pale 


marble 


copper 


flushed 


dark 






sable 


flush 


pallid 


pale 


coral 


green 


dusky 






snowy 
swarthy 


golden 


purple 


pallid 


crimson 


marble 


flushed 






hectic 


red 


empurpled 


dark 


milky 


ivory 






tawny 


ivory 


rosy 


red 


dusky 


pale 


lily 






wan 


lily 


roseate 


deep red 


fair 


pallid 


marble 






white 


livid 


sable 


roseate 


flame 


red 


milky 








pale 


scarlet 


ruddy 


flushed 


rosy 
ruddy 


olive 








ashy pale 


snowy 


hectic 


pale 








pallid 


swart 


wan 


ivory 


sallow 


pallid 








red 


wan 


white 


livid 


snowy 


pearly 








blood-red 


white 


snow white 


mahogany 


swart 


red 








dark- red 




yellow 


marble 


vermilion 


rosy 








rosy 






pallid 


wan 


sanguineous 








paly rose 






pale 


waxen 


silver 








ruddy 






pomegranate 


white 


snowy 








sable 






purple 


yellow 


starlight 








snowy 






red 




swart 








sunburnt 






autumnal - 




wan 








swarthy 
wan 






leaf-like-red 
blood-red 




white 
lily-white 








white 






rosy 

rouge 

ruddy 

sable 

sallow 








1 








snowy 


















sooty 


















sunburnt 


















swan -like 


















swarthy 




































white 










1 
1 


j 






yellow 


1 















CHART "B 


," COLOR-WO.) 




Langland 


GOWER 


Chaucer 


Spenser 


Shakspere 


Milton 


Pope 


Thom! 




Terms for 
Sky, Cloud, Air 




black 


black 
blue 
gray 
rosy 


black 

coal-black 

brazen 

crimson 

darksome 

golden 

purple 

ruddy 


azure 

black 

blue 

blush 

golden 

gray 

pale 

purple 

red 

iiery-red 

russet 

silver 

white 


amber 

azure 

black 

blue 

blushing 

dun 

dusky 

ebon 

golden 

gray 

red 

sable 

silver 

white 


argent 
blush 
gilded 
golden 
purple 


azure 

blue 

black . 

brazen • 

cerulean 

crimson 

dun 

dusky 

golden 

feTIen 

livid 

pale 

pallid 

red 

black-re, 

rosy 

roseate 

white 

yellow 

1 


Terms for 

Vegetation 

(not including flowers, 

fruits, and mosses) 


green 


green 


green 


green 

pallid green 
pallid 


emerald 

green 

grass-green 

hoar 
yellow 


brown 

darkish 

green 

pale 

russet 

verdant 

yellow 


embrowned 

green 

pale 

russet 

sable 

verdant 

yellow 


black 

brown 

fiery brc 

dark 

dun 

dusky 

gilded 

gray 

green 

dark gte 

deep grt 

wan gre 

hoary 

iron 

lurid 

russet 

sable 

tawny 

verdant 

yellow 




Terms for 
Mountains and Hills 








golden 

hoary 
gray 


blue 
gold 


dusky 
gray 


bluish 
hoary 


blue 
brown 
dun 
dusky- 
green 
sable 




Terms for 
Deep Waters 






black 
blue 
green 
wan 


hoar 
gray 


green 
yellow-gold 


gray 

pearl 
silver 




azure 

black 

blue 

green 

purple 





^S APPLIED TO NATURE. 



Gray 


Goldsmith 


COWPER 


Scott 


Coleridge 


Wordsworth 


Byron 


Shelley 


Keats 


azure 


ruddy 


black 


azure 


amber 


alabaster 


azure 


ashen 


amethyst 


blue 




blue 


black 


azure 


azure 


black 


azure 


azure 


black 




cerulean 


blue 


black 


black 


blue 


black 


black 


golden 




gray 


dark-blue 


blue-black 


blue 


blush 


blue 


bloomed 


sanguine 




purple 


bhish 


blue 


black-blue 


brazen 


blush 


blue 


sapphire 
vermeil 




red 


crimson 


blush 


dark-blue 


crimson 


cinereous 


dark blue 




rosy 


dark 


copper 


sable-blue 


dun 


crimson 


blush 








dusky 


crimson 


iron-brown 


golden 


dark 


cerulean 






golden 


ebon 


cerulean 


gray 


ebon 


crimson 








gray 


golden 


crimson 


livid 


emerald 


dark 








pale 


green 


gilded 


lurid 


golden 


dun 








pallid 


yellow-green 


golden 


pale 


green 


ebon 








purple 


gray 


green 


purple 


sea-green 


flushed 








red 


lurid 


gray 


deep-purple 


gray 


golden 








blood-red 


pale 


lurid 


red 


iron 


gray 








dark-red 


pitchy 


orange 


dusky red 


leaden 


jet 








swarthy-red 


purple 


purple 


rosy 


livid 


pale 








ruddy 


red 


purpureal 


silver 


orange 


purple 








sable 


dark-red 


red 


snowy 


pale 


rosy 








swarthy 


rosy 


rosy 


white 


pallid 


roseate 








white 


sapphire 


roseate 




pear! 


sapphire 








yellow 


white 


sapphire 
silver 
white 

pearly white 
yellow 




purple 

dark purple 

deepest " 

red 

blood-red 

dark-red 

rosy 

roseate 

ruddy 

sanguine 

sapphire 

snowy 

vermilion 

white 


silver 
silver wan 
white 


brown 


green 


brown 


black 


black 


black 


brown 


amber 


amber 


golden 




green 


blue 


brown 


bronzed 


black 


azure 


black 


green 




dark green 


brown 


dark 


brown 


dark 


brown 


blush 


verdant 




deep green 


deeper brown 


dusky 


red-brown 


emerald 


chrysolite 


brown 






gilded green 


dark 


fiery 


dark 


gilded 


crimson 


dark 






russet 


dun 


golden 


darksome 


golden 


dark 


dun 






sable 


emerald 


dark green 


dusky 


green 


dun 


dusky 






silver 


gilded 


emerald 


dark green 


dusky 


emerald 






tawny 


gray 


gray 


fiery 


dusky green 


ebon 


golden 






verdant 


green 


pale 


golden 


hoar 


emerald 


sober gold 






wan 


dark green 


purphng 


green 


red 


golden 


green 






yellow 


emerald -gr'n 


red 


gloomy " 


scarlet 


green 


beechen-green 








light green 


russet 


grass 


verdant 


dark green 


dark green 




1 


sepulchral " 


silver 


tawny " 


yellow 


sea-green 


grass-green 








hoary 


pinky-silver 


gray 




gray 


light green 








pale 


verdant 


hoary 




hoary 


hazel 








purple 


yellow 


pale 




livid 


sable 








red 




purple 




pale 


verdant 








dark red 




purpureal 




red 


lily-white 








russet 




red 




verdant 


yellow 








silver 




russet 




white 










swarthy 




sable 




yellow 










verdant 




silver 














yellow 




verdant 
white 






; 






azure 


amethyst 


green 


azure 


azure 


black 


black 






green 


blue 


hoary 


black 


blue 


blue 


blue 








brown 


rosy 


blue 


black 


dark 


light-blue 








crimson 


verdant 


brown 


brown 


green 


IIT 








gray 




dark 


dark 


gray 
hoary 
purple 








hoary 
purple 




duslcy 


dun 


verdant 










grain= 


dusky 










sallow 




green 
hoary 


gray 


white 










swarthy 




green 












white 




purple 

rosy-red 

rosy 

verdant 

white 

yellow 


hoar 
purple 
verdant 
white 










green 


azure 


blue 


azure 


azure 


amethystine 


blue 






white 


black 


cerulean 


bkie 


black 


azure 


dark blue 








blue 


dark 


dark brown 


blue 


black 


emerald 








dark blue 


green 


green 


dark blue 


blue 


green 








livid blue 


white 


hoary 


deep blue 


dark blue 


blue-green 








dark 




blushing 


dark 


gold-green 








dun 




purpureal 


dark 


dusky 


purple 








gold 




silver 


dun 


emerald 




",. 






green 




white 


dusky 


glaucous 










purple 






golden 


green 










ruddy 


■ 




gray 


dark green 










sable 


! 


1 


green 


gray 
hoary 










silver 






deep green 










snowy 






hoar 


pale 










tawny 






purple 


purple 










white 






red • 


sapphire 










silver-white 






sapphire 
v/hite 


silver 
snowy 










1 








white 





^J 



(^/J^V/, 



1^1 



